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The Getty Getty Vocabulary Download Center

Download Center for the Union List of Artist Names (ULAN)

The data on this site is made available by the J. Paul Getty Trust under the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-By) 1.0. The Getty vocabulary data is compiled from various contributors using published sources, which must be cited along with the J. Paul Getty Trust when the data is displayed. For information about obtaining the data or contributing to the Getty Vocabularies, contact the Getty Vocabulary Program.

About the ULAN Data Files

Formats of releases: The vocabulary data available from this page is in XML and Relational Table formats. The XML and Relational Table formats are available in the UTF-8 character encoding only.

The XML data files consist of logical full records. The REL data files contain table data in tab-delimited, relational format.

NOTE: Customized versions of these files are not available.

Web services: Data files may also be accessed through Web services APIs (application programming interfaces), which provide access to data that is refreshed every two weeks. The APIs are available to any institution having a login. Please read details in the Web Services User's Instructions (pdf).

Also available as LOD: The AAT, TGN, and ULAN are now also available as Linked Open Data (LOD). They are published as LOD under the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-By) 1.0. For further information, see http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/lod/index.html. Users of XML and Relational Tables are encouraged to transition to the LOD formats, since XML and Relational Tables are likely to be discontinued in the future.

Persistent IDs: Numeric identifications in the vocabulary data are persistent. Occasional editorial situations may require the generation of new IDs (e.g., when one existing record is divided into two records); for these rare cases, a mapping of the old IDs to the new ones is published.

ULAN data in raw format

The vocabulary data is released as raw data files. No software is provided.
The vocabulary data is improved, changed, and new data added on a regular basis. Users are advised to update their data often; instructions for updating your previously acquired data based on the new annual release are included in the files below.

Download the most recent release here

Refreshed versions of the data are released every month. The data is available in compressed form for ease of downloading.

Download ulan_xml_0622.zip, the ULAN XML file (UTF-8); file size 120,682 kilobytes. (updated 7/20/22)
Download ulan_rel_0124.zip, the ULAN REL file (UTF-8); file size 191,099 kilobytes. (updated 1/7/24)


Documentation

The Data Dictionaries (see below) describe the release formats for the ULAN. The XML schemas define the structure, content, and semantics of the XML document. For general information about the ULAN, see the Vocabulary Program Web pages; the About the ULAN pages provide a description of the history, structure, content, and application of the ULAN. For detailed information on the content and editorial rules, see the Editorial Guidelines.

NOTE:These documents do not give step-by-step instructions regarding how to construct a database or interface based on the data files; analysis and a competent programmer will be required of any user who wishes to implement the vocabulary data files. The Getty will not aid in this process.

Data Dictionaries

Access the ULAN XML Schemas  
View and print the ULAN REL Data Dictionary (PDF)  

To view and print Portable Document Format (PDF) you will need Adobe Reader.

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