When researching an object, start by thinking about the question of visibility and prominence:
- Is the object the property of a museum/archive or in a private collection?
- Was the object included in previous exhibitions ? If yes was it at a museum or a gallery ?
- Is the object likely to have been the object of study and research by scholars (archaeologists, art historians) ?
Thinking about visibility and prominence of the object, will help you assess the type of sources that are available:
- Museums and archives provide the following sources of information:
- exhibition catalogs
- organized and described collections
- digitized collections
- curators with subject expertise
- Scholars produce the following sources of information:
- articles in scholarly journals in the fields of archaeology, art history, anthropology, history, religion, etc.
- scholarly books
- dissertations
- conference presentations
- scholars with subject expertise