The Art Institute of Chicago Archives is the institution’s official archival repository, providing a foundation for institutional memory by collecting, organizing, and preserving unique materials of enduring historical value created by and about the museum (AIC) and School (SAIC), as well as art, architecture, and design resources that complement and extend the museum’s curatorial collections. Composed of three units, the Archives includes the Institutional Archives, Institutional Photography Archive (IPA), and the Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives, as well as digital preservation efforts. Since 2010, these have been unified under the Art Institute of Chicago Archives banner, situated within the museum's Research Center.
Archival materials are referenced in the online catalog, but the records there are brief and lacking the detail found in our finding aids and digitized image and media records. Although you can see the boxes that are available for an archival collection in the online catalog, in order to determine the location of the specific information you are seeking in the collection you will need to consult our finding aids.
A finding aid is an inventory or index to an archival collection. It will contain an overview of the collection, information on the original compiler of the records, a description of the contents, and information on how to locate specific materials within the collection.
Please note that because some archival collections are very large, finding aids do not necessarily describe every item or object within each collection. Therefore, description may only be offered at a more general level (e.g., “letters, 1940”).
If you have not used these tools before, an excellent explanation of how to use a finding aid is available here.
There are several ways to locate our finding aids:
When you find the location of the material you need, keep note of its series, box, portfolio, flatfile or other container number so that you can request the relevant item in the online catalog. Instructions for how to request items in the online catalog are in the Prepare for Your Visit drop-down menu.
Input a keyword into the box and click Search to begin searching the online library catalog, including content from the Art and Architecture Finding Aids, Digital Collections, and Oral History databases.
Unfortunately, Institutional Archives resources (including the Imaging Archives) are not yet searchable here; please visit this page for more information.