In early February 2016, museums and libraries worldwide took part in #ColorOurCollections–a campaign where they made available free coloring books, letting you color artwork from their collections and then share it on Twitter and other social media platforms, using the hashtag #ColorOurCollections. Below you can find a collection of free coloring books, which you can download and continue to enjoy. If you see any that we’re missing, please let us know in the comments, and we’ll do our best to update the page.
- Biodiversity Heritage Library
- Bodleian Library (PDF)
- Digital Public Library of America
- Dittrick Medical History Center Rare Book Collections, Case Western Reserve University (PDF)
- Europeana
- Folger Library
- James Madison University (PDF)
- National Archives of the United States (patents)
- New York Academy of Medicine
- New York Botanical Garden
- New York Public Library (PDF)
- Special Collections and Rare Books, University of Missouri Libraries (PDF)
- Smithsonian Libraries – (PDF)
- The Getty
- The Huntington
- The Open Library
- Wangensteen Historical Library, University of Minnesota
You can find a list of other participants on Twitter. The image above comes from The Huntington. Happy coloring.
H/T goes to Heather for making us aware of this project.
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and then there’s the Mütter Museum’s coloring book
https://twitter.com/MutterMuseum/status/694647815977451520
I’d love to download them all please
Download a handmade coloring book of Tokyo street art for free too: http://a-small-lab.com/projects/tokyo-colour-in
Also Europeana: http://blog.europeana.eu/2016/02/colorourcollections-europeanas-colouring-book-for-grown-ups/
The Getty has one as well! :) http://tmblr.co/ZFo21x214Ap7g
Thanks for the heads up. I added a couple of these to the list.
Cheers,
Dan
I would like to download them please and thank you!
And the New York Botanical Garden! https://goo.gl/PoUKLP
I love free coloring books
Love to have the links! Many thanks!!
The Dittrick link is broken unfortunately.
Auraria Library’s coloring book is filled with dragons adapted from Retzsch’s Outlines to Schiller’s Fight With the Dragon:
http://digital.auraria.edu/content/AA/00/00/35/74/00001/AA00003574_00001_cb.pdf
What an amazing idea! Thank you
I would love some coloring books
The Dittrick Medical History Center…..link doesn’t work. I’d have loved to have seen the things from that link (searched myself but couldn’t seem to find it. It’s possible my old eyes overlooked it though).
Thanks for putting this article together! The labor of those who worked on it hasn’t gone unnoticed. It’s great.
Since when were medieval European scriptorium monks African black? Shame on you for this politically correct revisionist lie.
I find it needlessly provocative that the race of the European Monk must be the subject of “artistic license.” The monk’s proper skin tone color is flaunted elsewhere in the art, making its omission all the more salient. This is clearly a deliberate decision on the artist’s part and a subtly subversive gesture which I see I’m not the only one of your readers to have noticed.
Africans have a history of their own to honor and treasure without needing recourse to historical revisionism. Let Europeans honor and treasure our own as well.
The book from the Vatican is very interesting.
Please refrain from disrespecting our culture. Idris Elba learned it the hard way – https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/black-thor-actor-blasts-debate-164048
I would love any you would send. I color quite a bit, can’t do a very much else. (80 years!) thank you. Judy Beckett
Thank you – colouring in on this scale and complexity online wise is excellent.
So don’t just stand there on the sidelines and bray … share some links!!
I have an online coloring book for young children and their parents to enjoy.
http://www.beminders.org/colorthebe.html