The Visual Resources Collections of the Department of the History of Art is a facility that gives scholars access to visual surrogates of artworks, to aid in the study of the History of Art. These surrogates exist in the form of 35mm and lantern slides, study and archival prints, digital images and other archives, and are made available to the faculty and graduate students of the University of Michigan.

The Department's image collections date back to the year 1911 when a collection of glass lantern slides was started to support the Department's early teaching program. From these beginnings the number of slides and photographs acquired for the collection has continued to keep pace with the Department's expanding and evolving teaching program. Currently, the Department's combined image collections contain over 590,000 images, which include 310,000 35mm slides, 50,000 lantern slides,  and nearly 200,000 archival research images.

In addition to maintaining these vast resources, the VRC is also adapting to the digital age. The ever-expanding collection of digital images, used for web site and classroom study, is more than 50,000 and the text database of digital images and 35mm slides contains over 287,000 records. These digital images mesh with the online course study materials the Department develops, and also integrate smoothly into the smart classrooms the Department has built. These classrooms include digital, video and slide projection equipment, along with rapid internet access, and impressive audio capabilities.