When you use the words, ideas, or creations of someone else, cite them. To make it easier to keep track of your sources, try a citation tool like Zotero. Not sure how to properly format your citations? Citation styles (MLA, APA, Chicago) give you detailed guidelines. The citation style you use will depend on the discipline, journal, or course for which you are writing.
If you're not sure which citation style to use, ask your professor. For most Art/Architecture research papers, you'll cite sources in Chicago or Turabian style. See the Chicago/Turabian section of our Citation Guide for instructions.
While each professor may have a different preference for what information you will need for an image citation, you can use this as a guide.
If you do not know any of these items, provide what you do know and put “unknown” for the rest.
Sometimes, it is sufficient to give just a credit line below the image, rather than a full footnote or endnote. Generally, Turabian style does not require a bibliographic citation for an image.
Try these helpful guides from other schools:
Citing an Image (Vanderbilt)
Citing Images (U. of Cincinnati)
Citing Images (U. of Dayton)
Citing a Work of Art (R&D Online)
Tip sheet with example (PDF from chicagomanualofstyle.org)
John Everett Millais. Ophelia, 1852. Oil on canvas. Tate Britain, London.
762 x 1118 mm. ARTstor.
Citation managers are great tools for keeping your research organized. You can use them to keep track of references you want to cite in your paper, share resources with your peers, and automatically generate citations for you. These tools can streamline your research process and save you a lot of time. However, make sure you double check any automatically generated citations for accuracy.