Photomuse

Photomuse is "the online expression of a long-term alliance between George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film and the International Center of Photography."

Collection Principals: Artfully designed, the site includes images from both of the aforementioned institutions. An 'Exhibition' link leads to a collection of online exhibits created from the resources of both the Eastman House and the ICP. No specifics about why particular images were selected are given, but by combining elements of the collections, visitors to the site have an experience they would not be able to in the physical museum. Funding is provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, Booth Ferris Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation and Fidelity Foundation.

Object Characteristics: The images are 600X600 pixel jpgs. Some may be magnified, but only by one click.

Metadata: Since the images are directly from archival photo collections, the metadata is relatively thorough. The artist, a brief description, date, size and a link to further information about each image is collected. The online collection is divided by Chronology, and a link to Exhibits is provided. The collection is searchable by keyword, but without an idea of what keywords to look for, some sort of dictionary of terms would be helpful. I expect the site has a tremendous number of resources available to the casual visitor, but they're not immediately apparent.

Intended Audience: According to the site, Photomuse's intent is to "provide online resources for the study of an important cultural subject: photography at work in the world." It invites "all student in scholars...academic or recreational...to use the site and assist...in making [Photomuse] a useful and authoritative learning tool." The site provides glimpses of history and urges comparisons between artists and events that might not have been made otherwise, which could potentially be useful to anyone lucky enough to stumble across the site.