Useful Costume WebsitesThis is a featured page


Keep in mind...

Google is a tremendous source of information BUT should not be the ONLY place to do research. Some of the information you find on google is authorative and accurate but some of it is not. Often, it is hard for students to determine whether the site or article they found was written by a scholar in the field or a 5th grader. The library buys many databases that cover a multitude of subject areas. Within many of these databases, there are journal articles, and reports that are researched and written by scholars.

Suggested websites:

  • University of Washington Fashion Plate Collection
    • An extensive collection of fashion plates taken from the original fashion plates collected by Blanche Payne and others. These images have been cataloged and carefully stored for preservation purposes in archival housing at the University of Washington. Many of these plates are from some of the leading French, British, American, and other continental fashion journals of the 19th century and early 20th century. You may search many different ways, such as by subject or time period.
  • New York Public Library Digital Image Collection (Main Site)
    • For those who seek knowledge and inspiration from visual materials, the Picture Collection Online presents more than 30,000 digitized images from books, magazines and newspapers as well as original photographs, prints and postcards, mostly created before 1923. Recommended searching by Subject and limit to "Clothing & Dress" being careful to narrow to a certain country and date (1910-1919).
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    • The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 by a group of American citizens – businessmen and financiers as well as leading artists and thinkers of the day – who wanted to create a museum to bring art and art education to the American people. The Collection Database is a searchable database of artworks and related materials from the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. An individual database record includes information about an object as well as images, when available. The Museum's curators have selected several works of note within the Collection Database as Highlights of the collection. Due to the extremely large number of objects in the Museum's permanent collection, not all artworks are currently available in the Collection Database or complete.
  • Victoria and Albert Museum
  • Edwardian Fashion (from Victoriana)
    • Commercial site providing access to a variety of images related to Edwardian fashion. IMPORTANT: This page connects users to images from the Gazette du Bon Ton, an important fashion magazine from the early 1900s.
  • Fashion of the 1910s (Wikipedia)
    • Useful images, but not recommended for citation in a paper. Site provides links to external sites. Disclaimer from your librarian: Always be careful when using information from Wikipedia. Since it is an open site that anyone can edit, you never know where the content is coming from.
  • Costumes.org
    • Main purpose of the site is costume patterns for sale. Site creator does permit linking to the site and using images for educational use. Organized by subject areas. When searching on a particular subject, for example, corsets, check the link labeled "History" to see if the category is organized by date or time period. Many links point to the Fashion Era website.
  • Art Deco Prints and Posters
    • Online image commercial collection with access to many graphics from the Gazette du Bon Ton. Search by limiting the sub-category to "Fashion & Theater."
  • Gentleman's Emporium
    • Commercial site for costume sale. Most costumes are Victorian in style, but a few Edwardian images are scattered throughout. Contains many images of a variety of men's clothing.
  • Sewing Central
    • Commercial site for historic patterns.
  • Past Patterns
    • Commercial site for accurate Federal, Jacksonian, Civil War, Gilded Age, Edwardian and WWI up to WWII Clothing Patterns for Men, Women and Children.
  • Victorian and Edwardian Photographs
    • Private collect of photographs of the Edwardian period. Disclaimer of site creator: All the images on my sites are unique photographs from my own collection and must not be copied, printed, or used in any way without my permission they are not in the public domain, or available from any other source.
  • Period Fashions Reference Library
    • A section of the site Vintage Victorian. Provides images and photographs of the Edwardian Era.

Help with finding additional websites:
  • Not sure if the site you found is authoritative and reliable?
    • Try looking at the Potter Library's suggested subject resources web links. These resources have been reviewed by librarians and are considered authoritative.
    • If you must venture onto Google, remember you need to
      • look for who wrote the page and figure out what the purpose of the document is
      • understand who wrote the page and if they have authority on the subject
      • look how the information is presented
      • how current the information is (if necessary)
    • Need more help? Try reviewing the Evaluating the Internet tutorial created by the library or the Evaluating Web Sources checklist .



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