WILMINGTON, DE.- The Delaware Art Museum announced the launch of its collections website. Through the web-based platform eMuseum, the Museum's best known works of art--including many that are not currently on view--can now be seen from anywhere in the world. Visitors to this new online resource are able to browse the Museum's collections, search for specific objects, view images, and create their own saved collections of work.

To date, over 1,000 works of art--paintings, drawings, and sculptures--have been photographed, catalogued, and added to the website. The Museum's entire 12,500-work collection, including the largest collection of British Pre-Raphaelite art outside of the United Kingdom, American illustration, and American art from the 1800s to the present, will be available online by 2018. The complete and informative database will allow the Delaware Art Museum to carry out its core mission of connecting people to art.

A $130,000 Museums for America grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and support from the Welfare Foundation funded the first phases of this project, enabling the Museum to make its collections accessible to the public. The Museum will seek additional funding opportunities in order to complete the five-year project.

"This is an incredible opportunity for the Museum," explains Margaretta Frederick, Chief Curator and Curator of the Bancroft Collection of Pre-Raphaelite Art at the Delaware Art Museum. "Putting the collection online allows us to serve our diverse audiences more effectively through expanded access to collections-related information, images, and scholarship."

The new database is accessible through the Museum's website (delart.org). Under the "Collections" tab, visitors to the site will have the option to "Search the Collection" and easily maneuver between curated collections, individual object records, and related artist biographies. Registration is free to all visitors, and account holders can select favorite records, curate personal online collections, and save research notes.