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THEA 251 - Costume Design: Visual Research

Digital Image Collections

Museum Digital Image Collections

These museum websites provide information about fashion but are also great sites for browsing digital images of apparel and costume. 

Doing Visual Research

You can find images by browsing through print sources - such as books and magazines - and by searching digital image collections. 

On this page, you will find information that will help you to effectively locate and use images.  For even more resources, take a look at this research guide:

Image Resources

Like all resources, images should be used responsibly.  Be sure to comply with copyright law, license agreements, and the Terms and Conditions of Use provided by the databases or websites that you acquire the images from, and always cite your images, just as you would any other source. 

Finding Books With Images

You can find useful images by browsing through books.  To locate books in the library, use the WorldCat Library Catalog

Of course, some books contain more images than others.  One good way to find books that contain a large number of pictures is to include the phrases "in art" or "pictorial works" in your search. 

For example, if you are looking for books with images of southern plantations, you might try a search combining the term "plantation" with the term "pictorial works." 

Make sure to take a look at the subject terms that are used to describe relevant results.  You can use these terms to build further searches. 

Citing Image Sources

Whether you are using them in a paper, PowerPoint presentation, Prezi, or video, you must always provide a citation for your images, just as you would any other source.

For more information on how to cite images, visit the Image Resources Guide