About the online collection of the Wien Museum
The collection of the Wien Museum encompasses more than one million objects. In addition to objects related to the city’s history and daily life, the museum has a significant collection of Viennese art. The museum’s holdings also include special collections, including but not limited to fashion, clocks, the Prater, coins, medals, and archaeology.
The objects here are accompanied by further information and images for browsing or targeted research. The collection is constantly being expanded. Every object within the online collection is equipped with an image, which in many cases can be used for free (“open content”). Right now, over 104621 records with 166153 images are online.
Even though the collection is supervised by an editorial staff, errors may occur. If you have more information or revision suggestions, please send an e-mail to onlinesammlung@wienmuseum.at.
For whom is the online collection?
The online collection of the Wien Museum is open to anyone who is interested in the history of the city and its municipal art collection. It can be used in a variety of ways: for example as inspiration for school projects and learning materials, as a tool for academic research, for personal curiosity, or as an image database for journalists or artists.
What can I find in the online collection?
The basis for the online collection is the database used by the museum staff to document their research and the images also stored within it. Particularly fragile objects requiring conservational care, or objects specifically relevant to academic research are given the highest priority during digitisation. Many objects are also digitised in the course of researching and preparing exhibitions.
While the online collection provides broad insights into the diverse museum collection, it also offers access to specific sub-collections and areas for research purposes. In addition to museum highlights, there is a wide range of objects available, from photography to graphics, painting, and fashion.
The accompanying information lists the following (if available): artist, producer, date, title, classification, material, technique, dimension, inscriptions, and references to literature (especially publications of the Wien Museum). Clocks can be filtered according to their power source, coins by their mint and mint territory. For archaeological findings from a specific excavation site, please use the free search option. In order to facilitate a simple search, keywords regarding topics, districts, and subjects (Iconclass) are added continuously. Some objects have an explanatory text attached.
Which search options and functions are there?
The detailed search is especially for users, who know exactly what they are looking for. If you prefer browsing, use the free search or select one of the albums or search suggestions. With one click on the star sign, objects can be saved temporarily in an individual album called “My Album”. This configuration remains in place until the cache of the browser is deleted (depending on the browser settings).
If you want to save your individual selection of objects (“My Album”) permanently or share it with somebody else, please note the corresponding functions in “My Album”. You can also edit the title and download your selection as a PDF-file. Each personal album (“My Album”) has a permanent link that can also be saved in the bookmarks of your browser. Also, you can download single object records as a PDF-file. Also, you can download single object records as a PDF-file. Each personal album (“My Album”) has a permanent link that can also be saved in the bookmarks of your browser. Please note that the “My Album” feature might be deactivated by the browser settings for cookies and other website data on your device.
What can I reuse?
The Wien Museum aims to provide easy and complete access to information about objects and images of them. How you can use the images depends on the copyright of the object itself and the photograph of it. Consequently, there are two groups:
“Open Content”: includes all images labelled with a download and share symbol or found using the search function “Open Content”. You can share, reuse, and modify these images for all purposes without asking for permission (including commercial use). Images in the public domain are labelled with CC0. Images where the reproduction has resulted in copyright or ancillary copyright protection are provided with the CC BY 4.0 licence and can only be used if the copyright holder is named.
All other images may only be used upon request and the user is responsible for gaining permission from the respective copyright holders. We will gladly help you: fotobestellung@wienmuseum.at.
All texts and information accompanying objects in the online collection of the Wien Museum can be shared and reused without asking.
The usage of your individually created PDFs (“My Album”, object record) is allowed for private purposes.
For the Wien Museum Online Collection we use an API (application programming interface), which is currently only available for this purpose and may not be reused.
Name the source (“Fair use”)
If you choose to use an image with CC0 label, the Wien Museum asks you to name the author and photographer as well as the Wien Museum as source. CC BY 4.0 content requires the naming of these sources. We recommend using the provided caption attached to each image; simply copy and paste it. If you include a link to our online collections, others might also be able to make use of our free online services.. We would love to see the creative ways in which you use our images. If you want to share, send us examples via mail or send an e-mail with a link to your website to onlinesammlung@wienmuseum.at!
We kindly ask you to respect these recommendations. Naming the Wien Museum as the providing source encourages other institutions to make their material available as well. More recommendations on how to deal with material in the public domain (protecting the reputation of the artist and the museum; showing respect for the original; sharing knowledge; being sensitive to other values) can be found at the Public Domain Usage Guidelines by Europeana.
Order of Photos
The online collection of the Wien Museum entails only a fraction of the museum’s collection and is continuously being expanded. If you cannot find an image of an object online, please contact our Department of Reproductions: fotobestellung@wienmuseum.at.
More information on reproductions, please see: https://www.wienmuseum.at/de/besucherinfo/reproduktionen