Research Guides: Theater Arts: Costume and Design Sources

Costume and Design Sources

The following resources are databases which provide digital images of stage and costume design. Some of these are part of the University of Oregon Libraries' collections and some are available on the free web. The source of an image (museum, gallery, book, etc.) should always be attributed in papers, publications, posters, brochures, and wherever else it is used.

Art and Architecture Images Collection This link opens in a new window
Digital images of art, architecture, and other cultural objects acquired for use by the University of Oregon community.
ARTstor This link opens in a new window
Search over one million digital images in the fields of the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences.
As of August 1, 2024 the former Artstor website is now completely incorporated into JSTOR. All content is now located there.

Europeana Fashion
Digitized images of historical clothing and accessories, contemporary designs, catwalk photographs, drawings, sketches, plates, catalogues and videos – from more than 30 European museums and archives.
Google Images
Search engine accesses millions of images from a variety of sources. Includes a unique search by image feature. Good source for plans, sections, elevations, etc.
The Kyoto Costume Institute Digital Archives
A digital collection of 300 clothing and fashion items from the Kyoto Costume Institute.
New York Public Library Digital Collections
NYPL is home to several theater archives and has digitized thousands of photos of productions, individuals, and performance documents.
National Portrait Gallery Fashion Plates
Digitized images of fashion illustrations ("plates") from popular 18th- and 19th-century U.K. magazines.
Production Art Database
Search the collections related to production art in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences library. Some images have been digitized.