Archival production photos are often available on the website of the theatre where the play premiered. The show's designers may have their own professional websites with an online portfolio.
The websites listed below contain production history and occasional photographs for Broadway or Off-Broadway productions.
Other archival collections may exist that cover the time period, playwright, or theater that you are researching. Your librarian can help you identify additional places to search!
To find books that are composed primarily of images, add the term "pictorial" to your search in Primo. For example, movie theaters pictorial.
Begin your search with one of the major search engines, like Google. See also Google's Art & Culture site for images from cultural institutions.
If you're searching for furniture from another country, use search terms both in English and the vernacular. For example, if you're searching the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection for French chairs, search both chair and chaise or both sofa and settee.
The same goes for searching international resources where they have an English option and a vernacular option. Search both the English term and its vernacular counterpart. If you're searching the Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum for chairs, search both stol (Norwegian) and chair, both bord and table.
You may also want to use words that denote the inside of a house, like room or interior, for example.
Use Google Translate to find vernacular terms for English objects.
Image CollectionsIn addition to searching the open web, try these licensed databases to find images.
A digital library of images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences, with a set of tools to view, present, and manage images.
Artstor is now available in its new home on JSTOR! When you search JSTOR, you will find Artstor’s 2+ million licensed images and more than 1,700 additional primary source collections alongside JSTOR’s vast collection of books, journal articles, and research reports.