Victoria & Albert Image Search

September 3, 2004 7:32 AM

*Quite too Utterly Utter!*We all know about the Victoria & Albert Museum site, but did you know about the online V&A Access to Images? I didn't, and I've just spent a couple of happy hours poring over it. Type in any search term, and you are likely to get some interesting results. "Woodblock", for example, returns 16 pages, and "fairytale" nets you three pages of interesting 19th century marionettes. Here's somthing amusing to kick you off...
posted by taz (12 comments total)

Nice, thanks!

could you not use tinyurl btw? It prevents extracting info about the link by mouse-overing and for many links tinyurl might well disappear before the linked site does, rendering the link useless for those reading the archives. There's a metatalk thread about this somewhere, but apparantly I have not pleased the google gods
posted by fvw at 7:39 AM on September 3, 2004

The V&A just rocks. Best description ever "It's your British Uncle's Attic -- provided, of course, your British Uncle took over the Empire."

It's also huge. Wear good shoes.

The musical instrument collection is amazing.
posted by eriko at 7:49 AM on September 3, 2004

Hiroshige always makes me feel peaceful. Thanks taz, bookmarked!
posted by sciurus at 7:50 AM on September 3, 2004

fvw, the real page url for the first link didn't work in preview (over several tries), so it was tinyurl, or linking straight to the jpg (and I figured someone would yell at me about that!). I think it was just too long for url field.
posted by taz at 8:05 AM on September 3, 2004

The V&A will definitely be on my agenda next time I get over there (hear, that, o Big Company o' Mine?). But in the meantime, the images are lovely.
posted by tommasz at 8:31 AM on September 3, 2004

Ha! This is great. I bet ya knew I'd love the dancing skeleton, the juggler and the peg-legged violinist. And all the rest, of course. So much to explore. Thanks!
(They seem very gracious with their images, too.)
posted by Shane at 9:16 AM on September 3, 2004

Great find from taz, as always. Thanks!
posted by scody at 4:12 PM on September 3, 2004

Oh great. There goes a few hours. Thanks for a great find and sharing it!

I have been to the V&A in person, I second the comment on wearing good shoes.
posted by fluffycreature at 4:53 PM on September 3, 2004

fvw was right: that first link appears to have changed now: here's the songsheet cover it refers to. And in case the same happens with the last link, here's the Bovril ad for "beef tea".

And regarding "good shoes", fetishists and fashionistas will be happy to know that the query "shoes" returns 10 pages, including this kicky pair of medieval runarounds, and this grim bit of domestic intimacy. And, hey! it looks like the early 18th century was kind of fun.
posted by taz at 8:35 PM on September 3, 2004

Heh, the links change constantly. E.G. my peglegged violinist is currently a silk handbag!
posted by Shane at 7:52 AM on September 4, 2004

omg. The only way to link to anything on this site is by directly linking the image file, evidently. Or maybe those change, too. Here's a test: "Utterly" songsheet. I'll be back.
posted by taz at 9:39 AM on September 4, 2004

That worked, taz.
posted by of strange foe at 12:12 PM on September 4, 2004