Primary Sources

Image research is a little different than other kinds of primary source research. Depending on the type of image that you are looking for, you might be checking Google Images for clues about where an image appeared, then tracking down the original source that the images in Google came from. Or, you may be able to find a stand-alone image in a specialized archival/image database. Interpreting the images often also requires some background in art history, or in technical processes for photography, illustration or publishing. 

Some general techniques for finding historic images: 

1. Looking for historic photographs in general? Try the Historic Images databases below
2. Not sure what kinds of images you might want, or just getting started? Try Google Images; see tips below
3. Looking for illustrations or other art that has been published in books/magazines/etc.? Try the Illustrations search techniques below
4. Looking for art or 3-dimensional artifacts? Try the Fine Art & Artifact research tips below
5. Need background information on photographic processes, history of art, history of publication processes, or other historic context? [Section TBA]

These databases are, for the most part, made by Archives, Libraries and Museums. They generally include photographs as well as digitized archival documents, maps, etc. Most of the material in these databases comes from original photographic prints or individual archival documents. Scroll down farther to find images that were published as illustrations within books/magazines, or fine art and artifacts. 
 

Image Databases in the Pacific Northwest

• Pacific University Archives Digital Exhibits
  About 10,000 items from Pacific's archives and art collections. 
• Washington County Heritage
  Historic photographs from a dozen institutions across our county, covering roughly 1860-1970.
• Oregon Digital
  Digitized archives & photographs from OSU and University of Oregon. Includes campus publications and archival collections on a wide variety of topics, mostly related in some way to the two universities. 
• Oregon Historical Society Digital Collections
  Mostly digitized photographs, mostly about Oregon. Great if you need an historic photo of a particular place in Oregon or a famous Oregonian. 
• Mountain West Digital Archives
  A database of digitized photographs and archival documents from repositories in Idaho, Montana, Utah, Nevada and other states in the upper Rocky Mountain and Great Basin regions. 
• Washington Rural Heritage
  Digitized collections (mostly photographs) from hundreds of small libraries and collections in Washington State, covering approximately the 1800s-1950s.
   

Other U.S. Image Databases

• Digital Public Library of America: 30 million+ documents and images from archives across the United States. This database compiles together digital sources from many smaller databases. 
• Eastman Museum Digital Collections: Top museum of photography, originally funded by Kodak. This collection is especially strong if you are looking for examples of different photographic processes and technical advances. See Classifications to browse by format.
• Library of Congress Digital Collections : very diverse set of collections from the L.o.C., organized by topic; great place to look for material on the Civil War, WWI, WWII, the Great Depression, African-American culture, and much more. Good mix of documents and photos.
• Online Archive of California : Millions of documents and images from archives in California. Especially good for researching the American West.
   

International Image Databases

• British Library Images Online: Images from the British Library's collections, with coverage of many areas that were once a part of the British Empire. This database is oriented towards commercial licensing of images rather than research, but is still a great discovery tool. 
• Europeana: European history and culture. Huge database with over 2,000 European institutional contributors. Includes images, documents, archives, etc. 
• Gallica: French history and culture from the Bibliotheque National de France with 2.5 million+ items, including images, documents, archives, etc. 

If you're not sure where to find an image or are just getting started, Google Images can be a powerful search tool. It does have some major drawbacks however: 

• Images are often completely out of context; hard to tell where/why/how the image originally was created or used
• Citations are often missing
• Images are often too low-resolution to re-use in other contexts

With these limitations in mind, here are some tips for getting the most out of Google Images: 

• Go to Google Images
• Start with a simple, but as-narrow-as-possible search. Proper names, places and dates help. Use quotes to search by phrases. Examples: 
  • Iwo Jima battle
  • "Red Cloud" Sioux
  • Paris "Belle Epoque" 1890
• When you find an appropriate image, your next task is to track down its original context and information for your citation:
  • Click on the image thumbnail
  • A link to the web page where the image appears should pop up; go to the original web page
  • Look for the image on the web page and read the text around it. Does it cite the image? Does it tell you any clues about where it was originally published or which archive/museum/etc. the image came from? Does it list a formal title for the image? Use these details to track down the best information you can about the image's original context. 
  • If you can find more info about where it came from originally, it is best to try and track down the original resource rather than relying on how it appears in a random blog, magazine, etc. If possible, find the original publication or archival repository where the image originally appeared before being copied onto the web site. 
• To limit your results to higher resolution images: 
  • On the search results page, click on the "Tools" button, then select: Size > Large

Some of the best images -- particularly if you're studying an event that occurred during the "Golden Age of Illustration" (1880-1920s) -- are not to be found in archival image databases, because they originally appeared within publications such as books and magazines. These can be extra difficult to locate, however. A few tips: 

• Starting with a Google Image Search is often most efficient. 
  Look for images on your topic; see if you can find the title of the book or magazine where the illustration appeared, then follow the next step. 
   
• If you know the name of the magazine / book / etc. where the image appeared, search for a digitized copy of that book or magazine. A good general approach is to do a HathiTrust Advanced Search and search by Title + keyword. See the Books or Newspapers & Magazines tabs of this guide for more tips. 
   
• Just looking for illustrations in general? Some top sources are: 
  • Harpers Magazine Archives, 1850s-present
    This was the number one illustrated magazine in America for decades! If you need an illustration of a particular battle, news event, popular fashions, etc. in America between the 1850s-1920s, it is worth browsing by date through the archives of this magazine.
  • L'Illustration (Paris), 1840s-1923 
    This was the world's first major illustrated magazine. Though in French, it often covered world news events. If you're looking for images related to European wars, French history/culture, etc. this is a top resource to browse by date. 
  • Atlantic Monthly, 1857-1923 - Monthly magazine on social, literary & historical topics; mostly text but some illustrations.
  • Colliers, digitized from 1899-1923 - Major general-interest American illustrated magazine.
  • Ladies' Home Journal, digitized from 1889-1923 - American magazine targeting women readers.
  • McClure's, digitized from 1893-1923 - Illustrated American magazine known for its 'muckracking' journalism.

• Want to access the artwork of a specific artist? 
  Printed books are still often the best way to access the work of specific artists. Books have the advantage of being able to do much better quality control, color depth, etc. than images on screen browsers can achieve. Look for books with the artist listed as the "author," using the Pacific University BoxerSearch Catalog. Pacific has several hundred art books on site, but you will likely need to use Summit borrowing for many less-well-known artists. 
• Looking for artifacts from a particular culture / event / geographical area? 
  You will likely have the best luck by first Googling for the museums that cover that topic, then checking to see if they have a 'digital exhibits' section on their web site. For example, if you were looking for artifacts from the Umatilla tribe, you would want to check the Tamastslikt museum site.
• UCSD Guide to Visual Art Sources
  This guide maintained by the UCSD Library links out to a large number of visual art databases, including specific museum collections. 
• Berkeley City College Guide to Anthropological Artifact Sources
  This guide links out to databases and individual museums with digitized anthropological collections. 
• ARTstor (Limited Free Access)
  This is the most comprehensive database of fine art images. Unfortunately, it is a very expensive database for libraries to subscribe to. Pacific University does not have access at this time. You can however get access by visiting the University of Oregon (closest branch: Portland) and get on-site guest access (more info on guest access). 

• Photographic Processes Video Series
  This YouTube series by the George Eastman Museum is highly recommended: it describes each of the major historic photographic processes. It also goes into detail about how each process changed the social usage of photographs. Particularly recommended for historians: 
  • The Daguerreotype - the first commonly available photographic process, available from the 1840s-1850s
  • The Albumen Print - this was the most popular 19th century process, very common from the 1860s-1880s
  • The Gelatin Silver Process - this is the standard blank & white photo process of the late 1800s-present. 

More resources TBA.