1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Next

Digital Images from the National Palace Museum

The Libraries have subscribed to a collection of digital images that represent the essence of the precious collection of Chinese ceramics, paintings, bronzes, jewelry, costumes, rare books, studio accessories, and more, held by the National Palace Museum of Taipei.

Founded on the original location of the Qing Dynasty court in Beijing in 1925, and relocated to Taipei in 1949, the Museum is renowned as a great repository of Chinese treasures spanning several millennia of Chinese history and pre-history. Its rich collections open an extraordinary window on Chinese civilization and culture.

Few American have an opportunity to visit the museum in person due to its distant location in Asia. Thanks to the California Digital Library (CDL), UCI community members are able to search, manipulate and export thousands of digitized images via CDL’s image service.

The digitized items were carefully selected from the entire collection by museum curators. Examples include a bronze Ding vessel with Mao Gong inscription (Late Western Zhou Dynasty, B.C.850–771), a gilt bronze lamp (Western Han Dynasty, B.C.206–A.D.9) , a lion-shaped ceramic pillow with san-cai colors (Liao to Jin Dynasty, A.D.916–1234), a seated portrait of Emperor Huizong (Song Dynasty, A.D.960–1279), a cobalt-blue glazed incense burner (Jia-Jing Reign, Ming Dynasty, A.D.1522–1566), and a pair of tortoiseshell fingernail guards (Qing Dynasty A.D.1644–1911).

To use the collection, go to the CDL image server
(www.imageservice.cdlib.org), scroll down to “National Palace Museum,” and click on “java client” at right to download the Luna Insight software to your local computer. Opening the client will take you to the National Palace collection. A forthcoming release will be accessible directly from the CDL image server website, greatly simplifying access. It also will include additional images, support Chinese and Japanese characters, and have more robust search, display, and export functions.

For more information or to obtain expert assistance, contact Ying Zhang, Research Librarian for Asian Studies (yingz@uci.edu or x40489).

Top of page | Library Newsletters | UCI Libraries website

Inside this issue

Message from the University Librarian: Globalism and the Libraries

Multimedia without Boundaries

Fall Exhibit: California Universities Building Amistad

Digital Images from the National Palace Museum
of Taipei

Building Global Collections

Library Recruitments Continue

Where Is Anteater Island?