Free and downloadable coloring books for adults that the New York Academy of Medicine solicits from museums and state and university libraries for its #ColorOurCollections The celebration of each February enlivens our month far more than any Valentine’s Day or President’s Day sale.
They are not only a great way to get through the last breath of winter. They are also a wonderful portal to discover cultural institutions that have so far escaped our radar, due to their size, geography and/or field of study.
It is up to each institution to determine what – and how much – to include.
A little color inside the lines sticking to the subject they are best known for. Most take a more mixed approach, throwing a variety of fascinating and unrelated images on the wall and seeing what sticks.
Some offers are only one page. Others will make you carry your pencils to the tips.
With 101 participating organizations, it can be difficult to know where to start.
Maybe we can help…
Medicine is your thing?
If so, you’re in luck. In our opinion, this is the most popular subject, although it covers a wide range, from line drawings of flowering medicinal plants to the reproduction of a 1998 American Society of Anesthesiologists Coloring Book for pediatric patients, to flayed corpses and harrowing surgical vignettes from centuries past.
The pages below are compliments of Stanford Center for Medical History Lane Library McGill University Osler Library of History of Medicine and Truhlsen-Marmor Eye Museum the only free public museum dedicated to the fascinating science of sight.
Is architecture more your area of interest?
Glessner House, Western University and the University of Barcelona have plans for you!
Does coloring make you nostalgic for childhood?
the South Carolina State Library the University of Calgary and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee did you cover charming illustrations of Fairy Tales and Wonderful Stories by Hans Andersen , Dr. Dolittle’s Circus ,Heroes of Kalevala
Only have a few minutes to spare…or a preschooler needs simpler graphics?
We understand, and Toulouse Jean Jaures University the Municipal library of Soissons and the Harvard Art Museums .
It’s always a joy to see who’s behind the most bizarre image of the year.
This year, our vote goes to Mazarine Library the oldest public library in France, but do not hesitate to suggest other candidates in the comments
To start your coloring book explorations of 2022 here
2022 Participating Institutions
New York Academy of Medicine Library
AIA Nashville Society and Nashville Parthenon
American Geographical Society Library – UW Milwaukee
Library of the University of Zaragoza
Interuniversity Health Library – University of Paris
Free Fields Library
Study and conservation library of Besançon
The Mazarine Library
Épinal intermunicipal multimedia library
Municipal library of Soissons
National Library of France
The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary (Columbia University Libraries)
Burylin Ivanovo Local History Museum
Belgorod District Central Children’s Library
Centralna pravosodna knjižnica – Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia Central Judicial Library
CEP Santa Cruz de Tenerife
CollEx Iberian Studies, Toulouse Jean Jaurès University
Captain Cook Memorial Museum
CRAI Library of the University of Barcelona
Denver Botanical Gardens
DiMenna-Nyselius Library, Fairfield University
Duke University Medical Center Library and Archives
Eton College Library
Europeana
Fairfield University Art Museum
Philadelphia Free Library Special Collections Division
Gladstone Library
Glessner House
Harley-Davidson Archives
Harvard Art Museums
Hawaii State Foundation for Culture and the Arts
Jeleniogórskie Centrum Informacji i Edukacji Regionalnej Książnica Karkonoska
Kentucky Historical Society
Leonard H.Ax Library, State University of Pittsburgh
Libraries and Cultural Resources, University of Calgary
Library of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Library of Virginia
National Art Museum of Lithuania
Maine State Library
Mann Library, Cornell University
Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Abraham Pollen Archives
Massachusetts General Hospital Archives and Special Collections
McGill Library (Osler Library of History of Medicine)
Jacques-Chirac media library, Troyes Champagne Métropole
Mediatheque Pierre-Amalric
Medical Heritage Library
Chilean memory
Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna w Sosnowcu
Moody Medical Library
Museum of the Order of Saint John
Plantin-Moretus Museum
National Library of Medicine (NLM)
National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania
New Jersey State Chamber
Norfolk Arts
North Carolina Art Museum
Northern Illinois University
Numely
Princeton University Library
Providence College Archives and Special Collections, Phillips Memorial Library
Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center, Davenport Public Library
Robert C. Williams Papermaking Museum
Royal College of Physicians of London
Royal Horticultural Society Libraries
Rutgers University Special Collections and University Archives
Saint Francis de Sales Parish Archives Coloring Book 2022
Seton Hall University Libraries
SHSU Special Collections, Newton Gresham Library
Smithsonian Libraries and Archives
South Carolina State Library
Stanford Center for Medical History, Lane Library
Stanford University Libraries
State Universal Scientific Library of the Krasnoyarsk Territory
Stratford Hall
Sub-Carpathian Digital Library
Swedenborg Library at Bryn Athyn College
Toronto Public Library
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Truhlsen-Marmor Eye Museum
UCC Library, University College Cork
University of British Columbia Library
University of California San Francisco Archives and Special Collections
University of Dayton Libraries
University of Illinois at Chicago Special Collections and University Archives
University of Kansas Libraries
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University Library
University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries
University of Nevada, Department of Special Collections and Reno University Archives
University of Perpignan Via Domitia
University of South Florida Libraries
University of Waterloo Special Collections and Archives
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Special Collections
US Department of the Interior Museum
Villa Bernasconi
Washington State Library
Western University Archives and Special Collections
West Virginia and Regional History Center
William L. Clements Library
Women and Leadership Archives, Loyola University Chicago
Wood Library-Museum of Anaesthesiology
Yaroslavl Regional Universal Scientific Library named after NA Nekrasov
– Ayun Halliday is the chief primatologist of East Village Inky zine and author, most recently, of Creative, Not Famous: The Little Potato Manifesto . Am here @AyunHalliday .
