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19th Century American Art

Find library and online resources for the study of 19th Century American Art.

MLA Style Research Guide

MLA style

Always follow the instructions given by your professor when citing sources!
The outlines below are general. Individual instructors may have specific requests and instructions.

MLA Handbook 8th ed.
LB2369 .G53 2016
available in print in Swem

See more examples
from the
OWL at Purdue MLA guide


Citing images in MLA style: captions and in list of works cited

Frank Lloyd Wright chair

Caption:
Fig. 1. Frank Lloyd Wright, Easy Chair, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis.
(Handbook section 4.5, page 118)

In list of works cited, image taken from a website:
Wright, Frank Lloyd. Easy Chair. 1903. Oak, upholstery. Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis. Unified Vision: The Architecture and design of the Prairie School. Minneapolis Institute of Arts, n.d. Web. 5 Aug. 2010.
(Handbook section 5.6.2, page 184)

In list of works cited, image taken from a book:
Wright, Frank Lloyd. Easy Chair. 1903. Oak, upholstery. Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis. Jennifer Komar Olivarez. Progressive Design in the Midwest: The Purcell-Cutts House and the Prairie School Collection at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2000. Catalog object 6. Print.
(Handbook section 5.7.6, page 200)

General guidelines for figure captions

  1. Label the image Figure (usually abbreviated Fig.) and assign it an arabic numeral (1, 2, 3...)
  2. Give the image a caption, for example, "Fig. 1. Mary Cassatt, Mother and Child, Wichita Museum, Wichita."
  3. Place the caption directly below the image and give it the same one-inch margins as the text of the paper.

"If the caption...provides complete information about the source and the source is not cited in the text, no entry for the source in the works-cited list is necessary."

 

 

General format for work of art in list of works cited

Artist last name, first name. Title of work. Date. Medium of composition. Museum or collection where work is located, city. Source of image (complete citation for book or website, including page number, figure number, or other relevant identifier).

Online citation tool

There are lots of tools that can help you format citations and bibliographies. They make the job of citing easier, but are not always 100% accurate. Double-check automatically-formatted citations before handing in papers!

RefWorks logo

RefWorks is an online citation manager. You can import and save citations to books and articles from the Library's catalog and databases, sort them into folders for specific classes and projects, plug them into research papers you write using Microsoft Word, and format them into notes and bibliographies in whatever style is required. RefWorks is a powerful tool! See our Guide to RefWorks for more information.