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The Art & Architecture Thesaurus ® (AAT), the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names ® (TGN), and the Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN) are structured vocabularies that can be used to improve access to information about art, architecture, and material culture. The Cultural Objects Name Authority ® (CONA) is currently in development. It compiles titles, attributions, depicted subjects, and other metadata about works of art, architecture, and cultural heritage, both extant and historical; metadata is gathered or linked from museum collections, special collections, archives, libraries, scholarly research, and other sources. CONA is linked to the Getty's structured vocabularies, the Art & Architecture Thesaurus ® (AAT), the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names ® (TGN), and the Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN). Through rich metadata and links, it is hoped that CONA and the Getty vocabularies will provide a powerful conduit for research and discovery for digital art history and related disciplines.

  • Cataloging: The Getty vocabularies may be used as data value standards at the point of documentation or cataloging. In this context, they may be used as a controlled vocabulary or authority by the cataloger or indexer; they provide preferred names/terms and synonyms for people, places, and things. They also provide structure and classification schemes that can aid in documentation.

  • Retrieval: They may be used as search assistants in database retrieval systems. They are knowledge bases that include semantic networks that show links and paths between concepts; these relationships can make retrieval more successful.

  • Research tools: They may be utilized as research tools, valuable because of the rich information and contextual knowledge that they contain.

  • Linked Open Data (LOD): The Getty vocabularies are constructed to allow their use in linked data. Releasing the Getty vocabularies as Linked Open Data is part of the Getty's ongoing effort to make our knowledge resources freely available to all. The AAT, TGN, and ULAN are now available as LOD. They are published under the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-By) 1.0.

    Making the Getty vocabularies available to the research community as LOD could have a truly transformative effect on the discipline of art history in general, and on Digital Art History in particular.


The primary users of the Getty vocabularies include researchers in art and art history, museums, art libraries, archives, visual resource collection catalogers, conservation specialists, archaeological projects, bibliographic projects concerned with art, and the information specialists who are dealing with the needs of these users. In addition, a significant number of users of the Getty vocabularies are students or members of the general public.

Accessing the vocabularies: Catalogers and indexers who use the vocabularies typically access them by using them as implemented in a collection management system (either purchased off-the-shelf through a vendor or custom-built for their local requirements) or by copying-and-pasting from the online databases on the Getty Web site. The databases made available on the Web site are intended to support limited research and cataloging efforts. Companies and institutions interested in regular or extensive use of the Getty vocabularies should explore licensing options by contacting the Getty Vocabulary Program at Implementers who wish to provide vocabularies to end-users or use them in search engines may license the vocabularies in XML or relational tables, which are released annually on July 1. The data is also available via Web services, where it is updated every two weeks. The licensed files include no user interface. As of February 2014, the AAT is available as Linked Open Data (LOD).

Comprehensiveness and updates: The AAT is a compiled resource; it is not comprehensive. The AAT grows through contributions. Recent large contributions include Spanish from Centro de Documentación de Bienes Patrimoniales, Chile; Dutch from the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie; a Chinese translation is underway by the National Digital Archives Program, Taiwan; German translation is being undertaken by the Institut für Museumsforschung in Berlin. Around 3,000 Italian object type terms were contributed by ICCD, Rome, and 3,000 French terms were contributed by CHIN. Possible full translations in French and Portuguese are under discussion.

A minimum record in AAT contains a numeric ID, a term, and a position in the hierarchy. Information in the AAT was compiled by the Getty Vocabulary Program in collaboration with many institutions. Institutions interested in contributing to the AAT may contact us at Implementers should keep in mind that the vocabularies grow and change over time. New versions are released in licensed files annually and on the Web site every month.

History of the AAT

Work on the AAT began in the late 1970s in response to a need expressed by art libraries and art journal indexing services that were beginning to automate their cataloging and indexing procedures. Soon catalogers of museum objects and visual resource collections also expressed a need for similar controlled vocabulary to encourage consistency in cataloging and more efficient retrieval of information. While controlled headings and terminology were already common in the field of bibliographic cataloging, and thesauri for cataloging in the sciences was by then well established, the use of a thesaurus for indexing was not welcomed by art catalogers prior to the advent of computerized cataloging.

From its inception, the AAT was intended to satisfy a variety of user groups. The initial core of the AAT was gathered from terminology already being used in authority lists and the literature of art and architectural history; this terminology was approved and supplemented by a scholarly advisory team comprising art and architectural historians, architects, librarians, visual resource curators, archivists, museum personnel, and specialists in thesaurus construction. Reaching consensus among these various groups required long discussions and difficult negotiations, with the goal of creating a resource applicable to their diverse interests and requirements that would allow cross-collection retrieval. The AAT grows and changes via contributions from the user community and editorial work of the Getty Vocabulary Program.

The basic principles under which the AAT is constructed and maintained were established in 1981: Its scope includes terminology needed to catalog and retrieve information about the visual arts and architecture; it is constructed using national and international standards for thesaurus construction; it was initially a hierarchy inspired by the tree structures of MeSH (Medical Subject Headings Thesaurus); it is based on terminology that is current, warranted for use by authoritative literary sources, and validated by use in the scholarly art and architectural history community; and it is compiled and edited in response to the needs of the user community.

The AAT was originally founded by directors of libraries and architectural experts: Toni Petersen, Dora Crouch, and Pat Molholt. Technical advice and financial support were provided by the Getty Trust. Editorial work has been managed by the Getty since 1983. In 1987 the Getty created a department dedicated to compiling and distributing terminology, now known as the Getty Vocabulary Program. The AAT has been constructed over the decades by numerous members of the user community and an army of dedicated editors, under the supervision of several managers. The AAT was published in 1990 and 1994 in both print form ( Art & Architecture Thesaurus. Toni Petersen, director. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990; and 2nd edition, 1994) and machine-readable files. Given the growing size and frequency of changes and additions to the AAT, by 1997 it had become evident that hard-copy publication was impractical. It is now published in automated formats only, in both a searchable online Web interface and in data files available for licensing. The AAT offices were originally located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, but later moved to the Getty's Los Angeles headquarters in order to better coordinate with the work of the ULAN and TGN.

The data is compiled and edited in an editorial system that was custom-built by Getty technical staff to meet the unique requirements of compiling data from many contributors, building complex and changing polyhierarchies, merging, moving, and publishing in various formats. Final editorial control of the AAT is maintained by the Getty Vocabulary Program, using well-established editorial rules.

The current manager of the Getty vocabularies is Patricia Harpring, Managing Editor. Administratively, the Vocabulary Program resides under the GRI Collection Management and Description Division (David Farneth, Head). Other GRI departments in this division are General Collection Cataloging, Special Collections Cataloging, Digital Services, the Registrar\x92s Office, Institutional Records and Archives, and Conservation and Preservation. The Vocabulary Program works with Art History Documentation (Murtha Baca, Head) to foster foreign language translations of the vocabularies, maintain national and international partnerships, and oversee licensing and marketing.

Scope and Structure

The AAT is a structured vocabulary containing terms and other information about concepts. Terms in AAT may be used to describe art, architecture, decorative arts, material culture, and archival materials. The target audience includes museums, libraries, visual resource collections, archives, conservation projects, cataloging projects, and bibliographic projects. Terms for any concept may include the plural form of the term, singular form, natural order, inverted order, spelling variants, scientific and common forms, various forms of speech, and synonyms that have various etymological roots. Among these terms, one is flagged as the preferred term, or descriptor. There may be multiple descriptors reflecting usage in multiple languages. Preferences for individual contributors may differ and are noted.

The AAT is a thesaurus in compliance with ISO and NISO standards.

The focus of each AAT record is a concept. In the database, each concept's record (also called a subject) is identified by a unique numeric ID. Linked to each concept record are terms, related concepts, a parent (that is, a position in the hierarchy), sources for the data, and notes. The temporal coverage of the AAT ranges from Antiquity to the present and the scope is global.

More about scope and structure: The AAT is a hierarchical database; its trees branch from a root called Top of the AAT hierarchies (Subject_ID: 300000000). There may be multiple broader contexts, making AAT polyhierarchical. In addition to the hierarchical relationships, the AAT has equivalence and associative relationships.

The conceptual framework of facets and hierarchies in the AAT is designed to allow a general classification scheme for art and architecture. The framework is not subject-specific; for example, there is no defined portion of the AAT that is specific only for Renaissance painting. Terms to describe Renaissance paintings will be found in many locations in the AAT hierarchies.

Facets and hierarchies: Facets constitute the major subdivisions of the AAT hierarchical structure. A facet contains a homogeneous class of concepts, the members of which share characteristics that distinguish them from members of other classes. For example, marble refers to a substance used in the creation of art and architecture, and it is found in the Materials facet. Impressionist denotes a visually distinctive style of art, and it is found in the Styles and Periods facet.

  • The facets are conceptually organized in a scheme that proceeds from abstract concepts to concrete, physical artifacts.

    • Associated Concepts: This facet contains abstract concepts and phenomena that relate to the study and execution of a wide range of human thought and activity, including architecture and art in all media, as well as related disciplines. Also covered here are theoretical and critical concerns, ideologies, attitudes, and social or cultural movements (e.g., beauty, balance, connoisseurship, metaphor, freedom, socialism).

    • Physical Attributes: This facet concerns the perceptible or measurable characteristics of materials and artifacts as well as features of materials and artifacts that are not separable as components. Included are characteristics such as size and shape, chemical properties of materials, qualities of texture and hardness, and features such as surface ornament and color (e.g., strapwork, borders, round, waterlogged, brittleness).

    • Styles and Periods: This facet provides commonly accepted terms for stylistic groupings and distinct chronological periods that are relevant to art, architecture, and the decorative arts (e.g., French, Louis XIV, Xia, Black-figure, Abstract Expressionist).

    • Agents: The Agents facet contains terms for designations of people, groups of people, and organizations identified by occupation or activity, by physical or mental characteristics, or by social role or condition (e.g., printmakers, landscape architects, corporations, religious orders). Animals and plants are also gradually being added to the Living Organisms hierarchy of this facet.

    • Activities: This facet encompasses areas of endeavor, physical and mental actions, discrete occurrences, systematic sequences of actions, methods employed toward a certain end, and processes occurring in materials or objects. Activities may range from branches of learning and professional fields to specific life events, from mentally executed tasks to processes performed on or with materials and objects, from single physical actions to complex games (e.g., archaeology, engineering, analyzing, contests, exhibitions, running, drawing (image-making), corrosion).

    • Materials: The Materials facet deals with physical substances, whether naturally or synthetically derived. These range from specific materials to types of materials designed by their function, such as colorants, and from raw materials to those that have been formed or processed into products that are used in fabricating structures or objects (e.g., iron, clay, adhesive, emulsifier, artificial ivory, millwork).

    • Objects: The Objects facet is the largest of all the AAT facets. It encompasses those discrete tangible or visible things that are inanimate and produced by human endeavor; that is, that are either fabricated or given form by human activity. These range, in physical form, from built works to images and written documents. They range in purpose from utilitarian to the aesthetic. Also included are landscape features that provide the context for the built environment (e.g., paintings, amphorae, facades, cathedrals, Brewster chairs, gardens).

    • Brand Names: The Brand Names facet was recently added to allow additions from the conservation community, particularly where a material or process does not have a generic name (e.g., Art Sorb (TM); Aquazol (TM); Papersave Process (TM)).

  • Homogeneous groupings of terminology, or hierarchies, are arranged within the seven facets of the AAT. A broader term provides an immediate class or genus to a concept, and serves to clarify its meaning. The narrower term is always a type of, kind of, example of, or manifestation of its broader context. For example, orthographic drawings is the broader context for plans (drawings) because all plans are orthographic.


    Facets and Hierarchies in the AAT

    Hierarchy: Associated Concepts

    Hierarchies: Attributes and Properties, Conditions and Effects, Design Elements, Color

    Hierarchy: Styles and Periods

    Hierarchies: People, Organizations, Living Organisms

    Hierarchies: Disciplines, Functions, Events, Physical and Mental Activities, Processes and Techniques

    Hierarchy: Materials

    Hierarchies: Object Groupings and Systems, Object Genres, Components

    Built Environment: Settlements and Landscapes, Built Complexes and Districts, Single Built Works, Open Spaces and Site Elements

    Furnishings and Equipment: Furnishings, Costume, Tools and Equipment, Weapons and Ammunition, Measuring Devices, Containers, Sound Devices, Recreational Artifacts, Transportation Vehicles

    Visual and Verbal Communication: Visual Works, Exchange Media, Information Forms

    Hierarchy: Brand Names


Information in the Record (Fields)

  • Language: Most fields in AAT records are written in English. However, the structure of the AAT supports multilinguality for terms and scope notes. All terms are written in Unicode. The the overall record-preferred term, which is also the English-preferred term, is written in the Roman alphabet.

  • Diacritics: The AAT terms and other fields contain dozens of different diacritics, expressed as codes (e.g., $00) in the data files. The AAT diacritical codes are mapped to Unicode. The mapping is distributed with the licensed data files. These codes should be translated into the proper diacritical mark for end-users. A Unicode version of the data is now also available. In Web displays, it may be impossible to display all diacritics. If a box or illegible sign displays instead of a character in a name or term, this means that your system cannot display the Unicode character represented. You may view the full name or term with correct diacritics by using Vista, Mac OS 10.5, or often by pasting the word into an MS Word document.

  • Fields: The AAT fields (i.e., discrete pieces of data) are described below. Data dictionaries for the licensed files are available at

  • Subject ID
    Unique numeric identification for the AAT record. Each concept in the AAT database is uniquely identified by a numeric ID that serves to link the terms and all other pertinent information to the concept record. The ID is generally permanent. Occasionally an ID may change due to the record being merged with another record; in such cases, the new IDs are included in the licensed files, and a mapping between defunct and new IDs is provided to licensees.
  • Record Type
    Type designation that characterizes the AAT record (concept, guide term, etc.). Record types include the following:

    Concept: Refers to records in the AAT that represent concepts, which include the majority of terms in the AAT: types of objects and architecture (e.g., amphora, cathedral), materials (bronze, stained glass), styles and periods (e.g., Neolithic, Baroque), types of people (e.g., painters, sculptors), activities (e.g., museology, printmaking), physical attributes (e.g., inlays, crazing), and associated concepts (e.g., verism, sprezzatura); records for concepts include the terms, a note, and bibliography. Compare Concept with Guide term and Hierarchy name.

    Guide term and node label: Guide terms and node labels are levels that collocate similar sets or classes of records as necessary. Guide terms and node labels are not used for indexing or cataloging. In displays, they should be enclosed in angled brackets. A node label is distinguished in that it contains a characteristic of division, usually including the word "by" (e.g., <photographs by form>); a guide term functions in the same way in the AAT, but it does not necessarily explicitly define the characteristic of division (e.g., <planographic printing processes>).

    Hierarchy name: Refers to the top of a hierarchy (e.g., Processes and Techniques). The hierarchy name is generally not used for indexing or cataloging.

    Facet: Refers to the top of a facet, which is one of the major divisions of the AAT (e.g., Activities Facet). It is not used for indexing or cataloging.


  • Label
    Brief text identification of the concept, concatenated from the preferred term (descriptor), qualifier (if applicable; Christmas in the example below), and the parent string (in parentheses in the example below, abbreviated as indicated with an elipsis). Whereas the Subject ID identifies the concept in the database, the Label serves as an easily legible heading to identify the concept for end-users. In the AAT displays (an entry in a results list display is illustrated below), the Label is displayed with the hierarchy icon (to the left of the Label) in order to permit the end-user to go to the hierarchy display for purposes of browsing.


  • Note
    Often called the Scope Note, a note that describes what the term means in the context of the AAT. Many, but not all, AAT records include a note; topics include the context, meaning, and usage of the concept and its terms, explaining how the meaning and usage of the concept differs from related concepts, as necessary. See the AAT:F.A.Q. for further discussion of Scope Notes. The example below is the Scope Note for still lifes.



  • Language for the Note
    The language of the Scope Note. Most scope notes in the AAT are written in English, however translations of the scope note in other languages may be included.

  • Terms
    Words or phrases referring to the concept, including a preferred term and variant terms. All terms in a record (i.e., all terms linked by a single Subject ID) are considered equivalents (i.e., synonyms). An AAT record may contain synonyms in the plural, singular, various forms of speech, variant spellings, terms in various languages, and synonyms of different etymological roots.


  • Term ID: Numeric ID that identifies the term in the database (e.g., in the example above, nature morte has the following Term_ID: 1000267038). Term IDs are unique; homographs have different IDs. The Term_ID may be hidden from end-users.

  • Display order of the terms
    Terms are arranged in a particular order by the editors. The preferred term is positioned first in a list of terms for the concept, other descriptors are also near the top of the list, followed by alternate descriptors, followed by other terms in a logical order, often alphabetically or by language. Current terms are sorted above historical terms.

    Implementers should sort the terms by the Display_order number, which is included in the data files, but typically hidden from end-users.

  • Flags for the Terms
    In displays for the end-user, Terms are displayed with various flags, often represented as capital letters in parentheses following the term (as in the example above). The capital letter in the above display is linked to an explanation of what the flag means. Not all of the flags contained in the data files are displayed to end-users (that is, some flags may be hidden from end-users in the AAT Online).

    Preferred Term
    The flag preferred following a term indicates that the term is the so-called preferred term for the record. (The flag non-preferred is hidden in the display.)

    Each record has one and only one default preferred term, flagged in order to provide a default term for the hierarchical and other displays (see also Language of the Terms below). The preferred term is always a descriptor. (The AAT may have multiple descriptors; see discussion below.) The preferred term may be used by catalogers who wish to apply the AAT as an authority, and consistently use a single term to refer to a concept. In the AAT, the preferred term is the most commonly used term in American English, based on usage in authoritative scholarly sources and general reference works.

    LC Flag
    Also called the AACR Flag. Currently this flag is usually set to NA in the AAT. Where it is used, it flags terms that correspond to Library of Congress Subject Headings.

    NA = Not Applicable
    Y = Yes

    Term Type flag
    Indicates the type of term, based on specialized terminology used in thesauri. The preferred term (its term type is descriptor) is often the plural form of the noun; however, in such cases the singular form will be flagged as an alternate descriptor, thus designated for end-users who prefer the singular rather than the plural form of the term (used in conjunction with the Part of Speech flag). In the example above, the singular form still life is flagged with an AD, indicating that it is an alternate descriptor. If a synonym in another language is included, it may also be a descriptor. The flags and their meanings are listed below.

    D = Descriptor
    AD = Alternate descriptor
    UF = Used for term, flagging synonyms that are not descriptors or alternate descriptors.

    Historical flag
    Indicates if the term is current or historical. Most terms in the AAT are flagged current.

    C = Current
    H = Historical
    B = Both current and historical
    U = Unknown
    NA = Not Applicable

    Vernacular flag
    Indicates if the term is in the vernacular (local) language, or some other language. Currently in the AAT, most terms are flagged U for Undetermined. See also Language of the Terms below.

    V = Vernacular
    O = Other
    U = Undetermined

    Other flags
    Indicates various characteristics of the term. Most terms are set to NA (Not Applicable) in the AAT data, however other designations are indicated where pertinent.

    NA = Not Applicable
    A = Abbreviation
    F = Full term
    C = Common term
    S = Scientific or Technical term
    J = Jargon or Slang
    N = Neologism
    CN = Chemical name

    Display Name/Term
    Currently, this flag is generally set to NA (Not Applicable) in the AAT data.

    Part of Speech
    Indicates the category into which the term would be placed relative to its normal function in a grammatical context. The primary purpose of this flag is to distinguish plural noun descriptors from singular noun alternate descriptors, to allow end-users to extract via algorithm plural terms for indexing (used by libraries) and singular terms for displays (used by museums, who also often index with the singular form too).

    U = Undetermined
    N = Noun
    PN = Plural Noun
    SN = Singular Noun
    B = Both Singular and Plural Noun
    PP = Past Participle
    VN = Verbal Noun/Gerund
    A = Adjectival/Possessive
    NA = Not Applicable


  • Dates for the Terms
    Dates comprise a Display Date, which is a note referring to a date of usage of the term, and Start Date and End Date, which are years that delimit the span of time referred to in the Display Date. Start and End Dates index the Display Date for retrieval, but are hidden from end-users. The example below illustrates a historical term in the record for wainscoting.

  • Language of the Terms
    The languages for the terms may also be included. A given term may have multiple language designations because it may have the same spelling in multiple languages. Currently in the AAT, the British English term will be included if it is spelled differently from the American English term. If the term is spelled the same in British and American English, the language designation is English. In some records, terms in additional languages may be included as well.

  • Preferred flag for a given language
    A "P" following the language in the examples indicates that this is the preferred term in that language. In the AAT, the preferred term (descriptor) is by default the preferred American English term. If there is a British English equivalent, it will be flagged. For example, the preferred British English spelling is marked with a "P" (British English-P) in the example above. For a given language, there is only one preferred term, although there may be multiple non-preferred terms in that language.

  • Language status
    Indicates if the term is a loan term from another language, meaning the term in one language is used with little or no change in a second language (e.g., trompe-l'oeil is a French loan term used in English).

  • Qualifier
    A word or phrase used to distinguish between homographs, which are terms that have the same spelling but different meanings. Qualifiers may refer to the broader context of the term or another significant distinguishing characteristic.


    In the AAT data files, the Qualifier is stored in a separate field, not in the Term field. For end-users, it should be displayed in parentheses with the Term. There may be multiple qualifiers for each term, given that qualifiers are recorded in a separate field from term and qualifiers are linked to the language. For example, if one term is used in multiple languages, each language may have its own qualifier for that term.

  • Facet or Hierarchy Code
    A special thesaurus code required by some catalogers who use the AAT. In early releases of the AAT, alpha-numeric codes were used to allow the construction of the hierarchies. Even though these codes are no longer needed for that purpose in current releases, cataloging practice for some institutions still requires the inclusion of the facet and hierarchy codes, which are therefore included for the convenience of these users. In the past, each Classification Notation consisted of three parts, separated by periods: an alpha-character facet code, an alpha-character hierarchy code, and a series of codes for the particular line containing the descriptor. The first two of these codes is retained as the Facet/Hierarchy Code (illustrated below).


    Given that the AAT changes and grows, and, therefore Classification Notations were regenerated for each new release, this system for building hierarchies was difficult for users to maintain over time; it has been replaced with links between the Subject_ID and Parent_ID, which are unique, consistent numeric codes.

  • Hierarchical Positions / Parent ID
    The hierarchy in the AAT refers to the method of structuring and displaying the concepts within their broader contexts. Concepts in the AAT typically have a genus/species relationship (rather than whole/part relationship). Hierarchies are built by using the Parent_ID, which is linked to each Subject_ID; the Parent_ID is hidden from end-users.

    For end-users, the Hierarchical Position is typically indicated in a display that shows broader contexts or parents of the concept. In a vertical Hierarchy Display, genus/species relationships are indicated with indention, as in the example below.


    In horizontal displays, the parents may be abbreviated, as indicated with an ellipsis in the display below (from a results list).


  • Multiple parents
    AAT is polyhierarchical. Each Subject_ID may be linked to multiple Parent_IDs. If there are multiple parents, one is marked as preferred. In displays, the preferred parent is listed first or otherwise designated. The example below illustrates the display of parents in a Full Record Display for aigrettes.


    In the full hierarchical view, it is recommended that implementers indicate relationships to non-preferred parents with an "[N]", as illustrated below.


  • Sort order in the hierarchy
    Siblings in the hierarchies are usually arranged alphabetically. However, they are sometimes arranged by another logical order, for example, in chronological order, as in the example below.


    For siblings at any level, implementers should build displays using the Sort_order, followed by an alphabetical sort. (In an alphabetical display all Sort_order designations are "1," and will therefore be sorted alphabetically in the second sort.) The Sort_order number is hidden from end-users.

  • Historical flag for the Parent
    Indicates if the link between the child and its parent is current or historical. Most relationships in the AAT are flagged Current; if the flag is Current, it is generally not displayed to end-users. If the flag is Historical, it is displayed (e.g., "H" in the example below).

    C = Current
    H = Historical
    B = Both current and historical
    U = Undetermined
    NA = Not Applicable


  • Dates for the parent


    Start and End Dates are years in the proleptic Gregorian calendar, which is the calendar produced by extending the Gregorian calendar to dates preceding its official introduction. Dates BCE are expressed as negative numbers. If the relationship currently applies, the End Date is 9999.

  • Hierarchy Relationship Type
    Indicates the type of relationship between a hierarchical child and its parent, expressed in the jargon of controlled vocabulary standards. An example of a whole/part relationship is Tuscany is a part of Italy (TGN). An example of genus/species relationship is calcite is a type of mineral (AAT). An example of the instance relationship is Rembrandt van Rijn is an example of a Person (ULAN). Most hierarchical relationships in AAT are Genus/Species.

    G=Genus/Species (generic) or BTG
    P=Whole/Part (partitive) or BTP
    I=Instance or BTI


  • Related Concepts
    Associative relationships to other concepts (subjects) in the AAT; they include various types of ties or connections between concepts, excluding genus/species (hierarchical) relationships. Each reference comprises a relationship type and a link to the Subject_ID of the related subject. For end-users, the related subject is displayed with its preferred name and parent string, as in the example for frescoes below.


  • Relationship Type
    A term or phrase characterizing the relationship between the subject at hand and the linked subject. In the example above, the relationship type in the record for frescoes indicates that arriccio, intonaco, and sinopie are materials used to produce frescoes. Relationship types are reciprocal (that is, linked to both records), drawn from a controlled list that comprises the controlled phrase and a numeric code, as illustrated below. The codes are hidden from end-users.


    Focus Entity

    Related Code


    related to



    distinguished from



    concept(s) used/created





  • Historical flag for the Related Concept
    Indicates if the link between the related concepts is current or historical. Most relationships in the AAT are flagged Current; if the flag is Current, it is generally not displayed to end-users. If the flag is Historical, it is displayed.

    C = Current
    H = Historical
    B = Both current and historical
    U = Undetermined
    NA = Not Applicable

  • Dates for the Related Concept
    Dates comprise a Display Date, which is a note referring to a date or other information about the link between the related concepts, and Start Date and End Date, which are years that delimit the span of time referred to in the Display Date. Start and End Dates index the Display Date for retrieval, but are hidden from end-users. Dates are reciprocal, meaning that they are linked to both records in the relationship. The example below illustrates a date for the Related Concept rapiers in the record for cup hilts.



  • Contributors
    The institutions or projects that contributed information to the AAT record. In order to give due credit to the contributing institution, it is required that implementers display a reference to the contributor to end-users.

    References to contributors are drawn from a controlled list comprising a numeric ID, a brief name, and a full name. The end-user must have access to the brief name and the full name. The Brief Name is the initials, abbreviations, or acronyms for the contributing projects or institutions (in square brackets in the display below). Contributors may be linked to the record in three ways: with the terms, with the record as a whole (subject), and with the note (scope note). In the example below, end-users may click on the initials of the contributor in the Full Record Display, which produces a fuller description of the contributor name.


  • Sources
    The AAT record generally includes the bibliographic sources for the terms. Most terms were found in authoritative publications on the given topic or in standard general reference works, including dictionaries and encyclopedias. In order to give due credit to published sources, it is required that implementers display a reference to the published source to end-users.



  • Page Number
    A reference to a volume, page, date of accessing a Web site, or heading reference in a source (as seen following the brief citation (in black following the blue citation in the above example).

  • Revision History
    The editorial history of each AAT record is captured in the Revision History, which identifies when records and terms have been added, edited, merged, etc. The Revision History is included with the licensed files, but hidden from end-users. This information allows implementers to update the AAT in their system with each new release.

Sample Record

Example Example

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Revised 1 June 2015

The J. Paul Getty Trust
The J. Paul Getty Trust