How many artists out there have spent time pawing through one of the world’s most comprehensive “flat files” in search of reference material? If you’re within a 10-mile radius of my desk, you probably know that I’m referring to The New York Public Library Picture Collection.

Not only is it the biggest—with over 1.2 million pictures—you can borrow up to 60 pieces at a time and take them back to your studio. Or, let’s say you’re an artist visiting from the Twin Cities and don’t have a library card, you can make color photocopies instead.

And now, the New York Public Library is set to launch the new Digital Collections website, with close to a million images already catalogued and accessible online. The search parameters are highly intuitive so you can either browse in a leisurely way or zero in on your subject matter.

Just for fun, I created an imaginary assignment: a book jacket for a novel set in 19^th-century Cuba—sort of a mashup of The Piano and Sugar in the Blood. Within a half hour I had found several images that could be reference material for my art, and many more pictures so evocative as to set the perfect mood for continuing my research.

The portrait of a woman in a beautiful head scarf (left), and the large image above, are from the book, The Negro in the New World, published in London, in 1910. All the images in the book can be viewed as thumbnails or as the book itself, in sequential pages. The library record citation is just a click away, which my art director and editor will appreciate. The pictures can be downloaded at a size that offers plenty of information for reference, and image purchase and permissions options are linked. NYPL Digital Collections also includes a picture archive from FIT. So if you are an artist or a costume designer in the Twin Cities, or anywhere on the planet with WiFi, you have free access to another great resource in Our Fair City.

The New York Public Library Digital Collection is now in beta, to officially launch in March. See for yourself!