Digital Art History & Visual Culture Research Lab

The Dictionary of Art Historians is a free, continually updated scholarly resource documenting historic art historians of Western art. Designed for scholars, students, and the wider public, it offers biographical entries that help readers explore the people and ideas that have shaped the discipline. The Dictionary generally includes individuals who published or lectured on art history, with broader criteria for figures who were seminal to the field’s early development or to the formation of its subgroups.

Critics, gallery dealers, and journalists are typically included only when they have also written a history. The site provides search and browse tools, a dedicated section on women art historians, news, and information about the project. Its entries cover a range of specialties, including architectural history and the study of particular art traditions.

A long-running digital humanities initiative, the Dictionary began as index cards in a shoebox and has since developed into an online database