To create a simple Art History style PowerPoint 2008 theme, first open a new presentation. The Formatting Palette will appear on the right side; if it does not, click on the “Toolbox” icon from the menu bar. On the Formatting Palette, select Style 4, which is a black background with white text.

To ensure that any subsequent text added to the slide with a text box is formatted correctly (ie, in white font), create a “test” text box by selecting that icon from the menu bar.

Once you have created and tested the text box…

…you’re ready to save the slide theme. Select “Save Theme” from the Formatting Palette.

Select a name for your theme that will be recognizable to you later.

To apply your theme to any future presentation, select the “Slide Themes” tab.

Next, select the “Custom Themes” tab. You will then see your theme saved with the title you assigned. Click on its thumbnail and you’re set!

You can follow the above steps to save other types of Microsoft Office 2008 themes as well. If you have any questions, please contact the VRC.

The behold search tool provides access to over one million Flickr-hosted images that are available free of charge. You may specify image results that can be modified and/or used for commercial purposes. For more information and Terms of Use, click here.

One of the most extensive collections of rare Chinese books outside of China will be digitized and made freely available to scholars worldwide as part of a six-year cooperative project between Harvard College Library (HCL) and the National Library of China (NLC)…

…The first phase, beginning in January 2010, will digitize books from the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, which date from about 960 AD to 1644. The second phase, starting in January 2013, will digitize books from the Qing Dynasty, which date from 1644 until 1795.  The collection includes materials which cover an extensive range of subjects, including history, philosophy, drama, belles letters and classics.

For more information, visit Harvard College Library’s article describing the project.

Art History faculty can checkout a wireless SlimBlade™ Presenter Media Mouse with a Mac laptop. For instructions on how to use the mouse, please click here. A flash tutorial is also available.

ARTstor and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) have just launched more than 1,400 images of works from the MoMA’s permanent collection in the Digital Library. The images have been selected from the museum’s unparalleled collection of modern and contemporary painting and sculpture. The works in the Department of Painting and Sculpture represent a comprehensive overview of major artists and artistic movements from the late 19th century to the present.

To view the collection after logging in, search for: moma “painting and sculpture”

Please consider adding the new Art History Department blog, The Voice of CWAC, to your RSS subscriptions. News and announcements of interest to the Cochrane-Woods Art Center community will be posted regularly.

The Staffordshire Hoard, discovered in July 2009, is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found. Leslie Webster, former Keeper of Prehistory and Europe at the British Museum describes this discovery:

…this is going to alter our perceptions of Anglo-Saxon England in the seventh and early eighth century as radically, if not moreso, as the 1939 Sutton Hoo discoveries did; it will make historians and literary scholars review what their sources tell us, and archaeologists and art-historians rethink the chronology of metalwork and manuscripts; and it will make us all think again about rising (and failing) kingdoms and the expression of regional identities in this period, the complicated transition from paganism to Christianity, the conduct of battle and the nature of fine metalwork production – to name only a few of the many huge issues it raises.

A selection of quality Staffordshire Hoard images is available on Flickr. To download high resolution images for projection, choose a thumbnail and then click on the “all sizes” button above the image.

The Database of Virtual Art seeks to document and ultimately preserve the evolving field of digital installation art. The database is intended for both researchers and artists, and digital media artists are encouraged to post content themselves. The web-based resource is free and allows browsing by artist name as well as keyword. Works, literature, people, events and institutions may also be searched.

Pictured: The Living Web by Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau, 2002.

The first-ever English version of the Musée du Louvre Collections Database, Atlas, is now available online.

Atlas allows the direct online consultation of 35,000 works of art exhibited in the Louvre. Online visitors can access the basic information displayed on labels accompanying works in the museum, together with authoritative commentary and analysis by the curators and staff. Visitors can carry out simple or advanced searches by keyword, artist, title, inventory number, medium, technique, department or room. Recent acquisitions are also highlighted. Atlas allows visitors to create a personalized album. When printed, the selected works are grouped by location within the museum (wing and floor number).

TinEye is a reverse image search engine. You can submit an image to TinEye to find out where it came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or to find higher resolution versions. TinEye is the first image search engine on the web to use image identification technology rather than keywords, metadata or watermarks.

TinEye is a helpful tool for identifying stray images as well. A stray slide without a label or a digital file without proper metadata may be uploaded and compared to similar images on the web. For answers to frequently asked questions about TinEye, or to view a short instructional video, click here.