Try the following image-rich online resources:
Ad* Access: draw inspiration from 7,000+ vintage, North American visual advertisements
Billy Rose Theatre Division Collection at the New York Public Library: browse 150,000+ digitized images, including production photos, costume illustrations, scrapbooks, ephemera, stage manager's logs, director's notes, and more
Creative Commons: search for free content in the public domain and under Creative Commons licenses
Digital Public Library of America: see photographs, maps, personal letters, museum objects, and artwork from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States
Europeana: browse artworks, artifacts, manuscript pages, and videos from libraries, museums, and archives across Europe
Google Arts and Culture: broadly explore periods, places, and objects
Performance Design Archive Online: access drafts, sketches, and final production images for costume, lighting, projection, sound, scene, and makeup design
UNCSA Archives Digital Collections: explore the history of (U)NCSA through more than 13,000 digitized images and documents
You can search for books by title, author, subject, or keyword. Images found in books often come with good explanatory text or background information that can help you expand your search or articulate your vision.
Once you find a title connected to your topic, I suggest coming to the library, finding your book on the shelf, thumbing through its pages, and exploring titles on the surrounding shelves. It might sound like an old-school way of finding images, but it can be a very effective way to discover good content serendipitously and quickly.
The library collects several major fashion and lifestyle magazines useful for historical reference and inspiration. Most magazine material is located on the 2nd floor. Latest issues will be in the 1st floor browsing area behind the stairs. We've listed only a few titles below — You'll find a lot more content when you browse stacks in the library. You can also search by title here.
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The library also provides digital access to full-page scans (images included) of many major magazines. While it's arguably harder to "browse" for content in most digital databases, good keywords can help you find what you're looking for right away in LibrarySearch (e.g., Shaker furniture, wedding dress, Gothic cathedral, etc.). You can also limit search results by date in the left hand filter if you're looking for images from a specific time period.
Use LibrarySearch (or on the library homepage) to search across multiple publications. Use the links below if you want to look at digital versions of specific titles.
Why? To browse archival images and articles from past issues of Life Magazine
What? Magazine articles, images
When? 1936 - 2000
Why? To browse a digital newsstand of recent, popular magazine issues including National Geographic and Time magazine
What? Magazine articles, images
When? 2014 - present
Why? To explore articles on many subject areas including business, science, and culture
What? Magazine articles, eBooks, primary source documents, and images including photos, maps, and flags