The Picture Collection is an image resource for faculty, students, and researchers that has been an important feature of the RISD educational experience since 1968. It contains almost 500,000 hardcopy images of people, places, and things, as well as mounted prints of art, architecture, and design. These images are culled from magazines, books, postcards, and other ephemera and they are gathered in folders with titles such as: Advertising, Arms & Armor, Costume, Dentistry, Drag Queens, Explosions, Ghost Towns, Hopper, Maps, Mesopotamia, Microscopy, Seeds & Seedpods, Textures, and many more. The collection is continually updated with new images and all material circulates for a loan period of four weeks.

The classroom space in the Picture Collection is available for reservations through 25Live. The space accommodates 25 patrons with a large flatscreen monitor accessible via AirPlay or a direct cable connection. The space is open to walk-in traffic but class-based groups are encouraged to make a reservation. Search the Picture Collection Indexes.

Hours: 9:00am - 4:30pm, Monday - Friday