Start Here
- Artstor This link opens in a new window
Over 2.5 million digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences with a suite of tools for teaching and research. Collections comprise contributions from international museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, artists, and artists' estates. Valuable for art history, African-American history, anthropology, decorative arts, fashion and costume, languages and literature, medieval studies, music history, theatre and dance, and much more.
Users can gain additional functionality by registering for an account, including downloading images and creating image groups. More about registering and other helpful tips on ARTstor's YouTube Channel.
- Digital Public Library of AmericaOver 13 million digitized images, documents, recordings and more from libraries, museums, and archives. Among its various specific pages that may be useful is this list of primary source sets.
Possible search terms
wom*n OR m*n OR ladies OR lady OR bordello* OR brothel* OR "New Orleans"
interior OR inside OR room OR furniture OR couch OR chair OR lounge OR sitting OR table OR boudoir OR parlor
bodice* OR skirt OR wearing OR cloth* OR fashion* OR suit
These are just examples, but take advantage of:
related concepts, synonyms, OR statements, truncation, and phrase searching in quotes
Also maybe try these
- American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
EBSCOhost access to digitized primary source documents from the late 17th through early 20th centuries in the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection. It includes over 8 million items from several thousand magazines, journals, and other periodical publications from 1684 through 1912, covering "advertising, health, women's issues, science, the history of slavery, industry and professions, religious issues, culture and the arts, and more."
You can also choose any of 50 different more focused thematic collections of these periodicals. To combine multiple collections together, after you click through into one, click "Choose Databases" at the top and select additional collections to add to your search set.
- Daguerreotypes"There are approximately 700 daguerreotypes in the Prints & Photographs Division. The majority of the images are portraits, but the collection does include a few early architectural views, outdoor scenes, and copies of works of art."
- Brady-Handy Collection"The majority of the Brady-Handy negatives are of Civil War [era] and post-Civil War portraits, with a small collection of Washington views."
This collection includes 5001 images.
Improve your Google searches
Important Limiters for searching Google Images
You can limit your results in Google to pages from specific sites or kinds of sites by including along with your search terms text such as site:wtamu.edu or, for all colleges and universities but only colleges and universities, site:.edu.
This way, even when searching Google Images, you're more likely to get archival content from university collections.
General web collections
- Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online CatalogAbout 1.2 million searchable images from the Library of Congress's pictorial holdings.
- Harper's Bazaar 1867-1900Archive available through Cornell.
- VADS, the Visual Arts Data ServiceBased at the Farnham Campus of the University College for the Creative Arts in Great Britain, this site offers over freely available 100,000 images in many specific organized and searchable collections.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art CollectionsOver 260,000 images of art works, including costumes and clothing from a wide range of eras. Lots of convenient ways to narrow and focus search. Over 16,000 images of costume items since 1900, nearly 8,000 from between 1800 and 1900, about 2500 from the years between 1600 & 1800, and hundreds more from earlier centuries.
Other library databases
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers: U.S. Major Dailies. This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Includes searchable full text of the following newspapers:
- The New York Times—1851-2019
- Wall Street Journal—1889-2011
- Washington Post—1877-2007
- Los Angeles Times—1881-1999
- The Chicago Tribune—1849-1998
Digital sources for African-American life and culture
- The Teenie Harris Photograph CollectionVisual images from the 1920s-1970s taken by Pittsburgh photographer Charles “Teenie” Harris document life in the black communities of Pittsburgh, including weddings, funerals, family portraits, church events, street scenes, businessmen, and mill workers. Held by the Carnegie Museum of Art.
- Ebony Magazine archives at Google BooksEbony has been a major monthly magazine focused on and directed toward African-Americans since 1945. Google Books has the digitized archives of every issue since 1959.
- Jet Magazine archives at Google BooksJet magazine was a weekly magazine marketed toward African-Americans, published from 1951 to 2014. Google Books has the digitized archives of all issues since 1951.
Get Help from the Library
Research & Access Help
- Use our 24/7 Live Chat located on the bottom right of library websites.
- Call (806) 651-2215 during library hours
- Use "Email a Librarian" to ask a question. Most responses within 1 business day.
- Stop by the first floor Research & Access Desk anytime the library is open
- Renew items using My account feature of the online catalog