Museums, Libraries & Collections

This list is in no way exhaustive, simply museums with collections we find interesting and helpful in our research.

 

Museums, libraries and miscellaneous costume collections from around the world, most with an emphasis on fashion from the 18th to 20th centuries.

Antique Pattern Library Catalog – dozens of original needlework books in PDF form – free for personal use!

The Bartos Collection – antique garments, fashion plates, photographs, a hairstyles section

Claremont Colleges Digital Library CCDL – hundreds of period fashion plates from 1789 to 1914

Costume Con Visual Archieve – photo albums of all prior Costume Cons

Hathi Trust Digital Collection – period magazines in digital format

Kyoto Costume Institute, Digital Archives

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA

Manchester Art Gallery, UK

McCord Museum, Montreal 

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Minnesota Historical Society

Mint Museum 

The Museum at FIT, New York

National Portrait Gallery – search portraits by era

The New York Public Library – Digital Gallery

Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, Mass. – 1830s living history museum

Prints with a Past – La Mode Illustree fashion prints, France 1875-1886

University of Washington Libraries – Fashion Plate Collection

Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK

Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, Delaware 

 

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