InfoGuides: Theater: Find Images and Primary Sources

Find Digital Images and Primary Sources

Find Digital Images and Primary Sources that will assist you in designing your production, inspiring your character work, or informing your directorial choices.

Artistic Images and Primary Sources

AP Images This link opens in a new window
Collects historical and contemporary imagery from Associated Press with a 50 million image print and negative archive including graphics and audio clips.
Tutorial for the AP Images database.
ARTstor This link opens in a new window
Contains over a million images documenting artistic traditions across many cultures and time periods. Updated frequently, please check back often for updated searches & collections. Note: ARTstor users must create a free account to save and share images. Users must turn off the popup blocker.
Tutorial for the ARTstor database.
Berg Fashion Library This link opens in a new window
Provides access to interdisciplinary and integrated text, image, and journal content on world dress and fashion.
Tutorial for the Berg Fashion Library database.
Daily Life through History This link opens in a new window
Supplies primary documents, reference works, monographs, images, maps, illustrations, and time lines depicting activities of daily life across the globe and throughout history. Covered time periods: Ancient (beginning of time to 4th century), Medieval (5th century to 14th century), Modern (15th century to 19th century), and Present (20th century to 21st century).
Tutorial for the Daily Life through History database.
HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
A digital preservation repository and access platform for long-term preservation and access services for public domain and in-copyright content from a variety of sources, including Google, the Internet Archive, Microsoft, and in-house partner institution initiatives.
Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window
Scholarly art encyclopedia. Includes over 200,000 reference articles on every aspect of the visual arts from prehistory to the present, with selected images, written by over 6,800 scholars. Serves as the access point for Grove Art Online, the Benezit Dictionary of Artists, and other Oxford art reference resources.
Pop Culture Universe: Icons, Idols, Ideas This link opens in a new window
Contains information on American and world popular culture, from the 1900s to the present. Includes essays, images, quotes, and more.
Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975 This link opens in a new window
Covers a wealth of subjects and themes, from Art and Architecture to Youth Culture. Source material includes: manuscripts and typescripts; printed materials (newspapers, magazines, press kits, artist's files); video clips; visual images (photographs, advertisements, memorabilia); ephemera (pamphlets, leaflets, posters, pins, artifacts); fanzines, underground press, scripts; and government files.
Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Archival research resource containing the essential primary sources for studying the history of the film and entertainment industries, from the era of vaudeville and silent movies through to the 21st century. The core US and UK trade magazines covering film, music, broadcasting and theater are included, together with film fan magazines and music press titles. Issues have been scanned in high-resolution color, with granular indexing of articles, covers, ads and reviews.
Tutorial for the Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive database.
Eighteenth Century Drama: Censorship and the Stage This link opens in a new window
Features the John Larpent Archival Collection from the Huntington Library which includes over 2,500 digital facsimile of almost every play submitted for license in England between 1737 and 1824. The collection also includes two major reference sources, The London Stage, 1660-1800 and A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800.

Tutorial for the Eighteenth Century Drama: Censorship and the Stage database.

Artsy
Represents contemporary/practicing artists, with over 50,000 artworks from galleries, museums, and artists' estates
Smithsonian Image Gallery
Includes over 530,000 electronic images from several archival repositories and museums at the Smithsonian.