The Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center’s (LRC) reading room is open to visitors! If you would like to schedule an in-person research visit, please submit a Researcher Registration Form or email lrc@nmwa.org if you are unable to complete the online form.

Search the online catalog for books, periodicals, reference materials, artist books, zines, exhibition catalogues, and more. The catalog also includes the LRC’s collection of over 800 unique artists’ books in a variety of mediums and formats.

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The Archives of Women Artists holds the papers and primary records of 30 women visual artists and organizations that promote women’s contributions to the arts. The archive includes personal papers, correspondence, gallery guides, sketches, photographs and slides, and other unique materials.

Use our detailed finding aids to explore available materials in the Archives of Women Artists.

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The Library and Research Center’s artist files contain research material on women artists of all periods and nationalities, with a particular emphasis on artists whose work has been exhibited at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

The artist files began as a place to house research material collected by curators and to serve as an artist registry for women artists all over the world. These files include artists’ resumes, correspondence, exhibition catalogues, and announcements, reproductions of artwork (slides and photographs), and articles and reviews from newspapers and magazines.

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• Jstor: On-site access only. This site provides full text of selected scholarly journals in a number of fields in PDF format.
• Oxford Art Online: On-site access only. A comprehensive online reference resource for all aspects of the visual arts worldwide, this covers prehistory to the 1990s. Includes information from Grove Dictionary of Art and Benezit Dictionary of Artists.
• Bibliography of the History of Art: A bilingual, international bibliographic database on the history of post-classical Western art, architecture, and decorative arts. It covers art history from late antiquity to the present. The database provides citations to material published between 1975 and 2007.
• Canadian Women Artists History Initiative: The Canadian Women Artists History Initiative is a collaborative endeavor that brings resources and researchers together to enhance scholarship on historical women artists in Canada.
• Illinois Women Artists Project: This searchable and browsable database has information on women artists active in Illinois as early as 1818.
• Women Artist Archives National Directory: This directory of U.S. archival collections contains primary source materials by and about women visual artists active in the U.S. since 1945.
• Women Who Draw: An Open Directory of Female Illustrators: Women Who Draw is an open directory of female professional illustrators, artists and cartoonists, emphasizing female illustrators of color, LBTQ+ illustrators, and other minority groups of female illustrators.