Databases for Finding Architectural History Articles
Begin by searching the databases below to find periodical article citations and full text periodical articles on your topic.
If you are off-campus, sign in to use the resources below with your netID and password.
50 databases Northwestern subscribes to for Art and Architecture, listed A-Z
(click here for the full list and descriptions of each resource)
Highlights found there which are particularly helpful for architectural topics include:
- Art & Architecture Source This link opens in a new windowArt & Architecture Source provides indexing and abstracting for journals, magazines and books covering topics, including art in all media, art history and criticism, architecture, archaeology, museum studies, graphic arts and advertising, product design, interior design, costume and set design, and television, video, & film from all parts of the world and all periods of time. Covers sources from 1914 to the present with selected full text.
- Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals This link opens in a new windowThe Avery Index to Architectural Periodicalsindexesarticles published in U.S. and foreign journals 1930-present coveringinternational, scholarly and popular periodical literature on the architecture and design of Europe, Asia, Latin America and Australia. It also provides citation records for architects' obituaries.Subjects include architecture, city planning, conservation and restoration, interior design, museums, and sustainable design.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowDigitized, full-text versions of core scholarly journals across disciplines. While coverage of these journals goes back to the first issue, for most journals the most recent issues will be for 3-5 years ago.
JSTOR includes 49 architecture and architectural history periodicals, such as Architectural History, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Buildings and Landscapes, Twentieth Century Architecture, and others. - Oxford Bibliographies: Art History This link opens in a new windowProvides annotated bibliographies of the most important books and articles related to all aspects of art history. This is a useful resource for anyone beginning research or seeking background knowledge on a topic.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new windowProject MUSE provides the full text of several hundred journals and thousands of eBooks from a variety of academic publishers.
Architecture periodicals include Landscape Journal and the National Trust's Forum Journal, and there are over 800 architecture e-books.
Google Scholar
You can also use Google Scholar to find links to article or book citations in other texts, or related materials.
Getting the Articles Themselves
Once you have found a list of citations for articles on your topic in the databases, how do you get the articles themselves?
- Sometimes the full text of the article is already attached to the database citation, as a PDF or HTML file. (Yay!) If so, just click to open, save, or print it!
- More often, the databases provide the citation only, telling you where to find the articles. Check NUsearch to see if Northwestern has the periodical in our collection and if we have the issue or date you need. (Search by the title of the journal or magazine, not the title of the specific article.)
- If our library does have the title and issue/date you need, you can go to the shelf to find and scan the article yourself, or you can request that the library scan it for you.
If Northwestern does not collect the magazine or journal you need, or we do not have access to the issue or date you need, you can request the article via Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Northwestern will request a scan from another library and then forward it on to you.
Scholary vs. Popular: Periodicals Vocab
Periodicals are also called "serials," a synonym.
They are published on a predetermined schedule, such as once a week, four times a year, annually, etc. Each issue of a periodical is usually filled with multiple pieces of writing (the articles), written by multiple authors.
In general, magazines are more popular. They are written and marketed for a wide audience of anyone interested in the topic. Architectural Digest is a good example of a popular architecture magazine. Popular magazines can often be found at large newsstands or mainstream bookstores, and they might include advertisements for exhibitions, building firms, and consumer products in addition to their articles.
Journals are generally more scholarly, written for a narrower audience of academics and fellow scholars of the topic. JSAH, the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, is a good example of a scholarly architectural history journal. Journals do not usually include many advertisements, and the articles include footnotes, bibliographies, and the other aspects of scholarly research.
Architecture Periodicals Held in Print at Northwestern University Libraries
This guide to the print periodicals held in the Architecture Reading Room was compiled by a former head of the library, Russ Clement. To browse the titles held in our collection with Russ Clement's descriptions, please open the PDF document below.
- Architecture Serials at Northwestern - by Russ Clement40 architecture periodicals collected in print at Northwestern University Libraries' Architecture Reading Room, with descriptions by Russ Clement.
Architecture Periodicals by Topic
Here are links to NUsearch, Northwestern's library catalog search tool, for online and print journals and magazines on architecture topics: