LibGuides: THEA 653: Costume History: Additional Resources

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources

Primary sources are original materials created at the time of the occurrence in question. Some examples of primary sources include the art of the period, portraits, museum collections, newspapers, films, photographs, catalogs, and advertisements.

Secondary sources are based on primary resources, but occur after the occurrence in question, and provide comentary or an interpretation of the occurrence.Some examples of secondary sources are monographs (books on a single subject) and journal articles.

Tertiary sources summarize information based on secondary and primary resources.Tertiary resources are a good places to look for dates and verify terms and/or spelling. They often provide suggested reading lists. Some examples of tertiary resources are encyclopedias, dictionaries, and handbooks.

Online Resources

Artcyclopedia
A freely available online directory of museum art on the Web. Retrieve a list of links to photographs of artists works at museums worldwide. Search by: Movement. by Medium. by Subject, by Nationality, or by Artist Name
Cornell Costume and Textile Collection
The Cornell collection includes more than 9,000 items of apparel dating from the eighteenth century to the present, as well as a substantial collection of ethnographic textiles and costume. An online gallery linked here displays highlights from the collection.
Costume Web Ring
This site is all about period costume, from the Middle Ages up to the early 20th century. Access 4000 costume pictures through a database, read one of hundreds of articles, or download some authentic period patterns.
Fashion2Fiber
Search some of the Historic Costume & Textiles Collection at Ohio State University. The 11,500+ holdings encompass a range of three dimensional objects such as textiles and articles of clothing and accessories for men, women, and children, including national dress costume, from the mid-18th century to contemporary 21st century designers.
Fashion History Timeline
From the Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York, the Fashion History Timeline is an open-access source for fashion history knowledge, featuring objects and artworks from over a hundred museums and libraries that span the globe. The Timeline website offers well-researched, accessibly written entries on specific artworks, garments and films for those interested in fashion and dress history.
Godey's Lady's Book
Find here links to scans of complete issues.
Google Arts & Culture
Artwork from over 150 museum collections including: paintings, drawings, sculptures, historic and religious artifacts, photographs and important manuscripts.
History of Costume
The "History of Costume" or "Zur Geschichte der Kostüme" was printed from 1861 to 1880 in Munich. The total publication contained a total of 500 costume designs. These plates consisted of historical dress from antiquity to the end of the 19th century. This book is an excellent source for students who are studying the history of fashion and for costume designers.
KCI Digital Archives
From the Kyoto Costume Institute, the KCI Digital Archives presents image and text information for the objects in the collection, arranged in chronological order. The collection contains a vast number of items of both Western and Japanese clothing.
Kent State University Museum Gallery of Costume
Online images for 18th, 19th and 20th century costume.
Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute
Researchers can search the holdings of The Costume Institute Collection to access images and information regarding these objects.
Metropolitan Museum of Art Online Collection
Here are over 400,000 high-resolution digital images of public domain works in the Museum’s world-renowned collection. Images are freely available for non-commercial use, including scholarly publication.
New York Public Library Digital Collections
NYPL Digital Gallery provides free and open access to over 800,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more.
New York Public Library Digital Picture Collection
This digitized presentation of about 45,000 items represents a select group of images from The New York Public Library Picture Collection.

Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window
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Online version of the comprehensive art reference work -- Oxford Dictionary of Art (formerly Grove Dictionary of Art). Covers all visual arts from prehistory to the present.

Prints & Phtographs Online Catalog
The Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) contains catalog records and digital images representing a rich cross-section of still pictures held by the Prints & Photographs Division and, in some cases, other units of the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress offers broad public access to these materials as a contribution to education and scholarship.
Texas Fashion Collection
Search digitized photographs of the collection holdings.
VADS
Access to visual art collections comprising over 100,000 images that are freely available and copyright cleared for use in learning, teaching and research in the UK.
Web Gallery of Art
The Web Gallery of Art is a virtual museum and searchable database of Western (European) fine arts of the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, and Impressionism periods (1000-1900), currently containing over 39.300 reproductions.
Wellcome Images
The Wellcome Collection contains historical images on a wide range of themes.

THEA 653: Costume History

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Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources

Online Resources