Costume Resources: Theatre History on the Web

Costume Resources

Arms and Armour

Christian Fletcher Armor. Excellent source. Lots of pictures.

History of Military Technology and Weapons. Canadian [Armed] Forces College, War, Peace and Security World Wide Web Server. An excellent site! Links to major military collections. [Gone missing, 12/11/01, JW. A real loss!]

Emperial Austria: Treasures of Art, Arms and Armor from the State of Styria. "Arms and Armor as Art Form and the Decorated Surface." [Gone missing, 11/11/08, JW.]
Medieval-Chain-Mail-Armor. SCA armor, and a good resource for theatrical costumers.
Medieval Weapons and Armour. A single page site maintained by Pred S. Bundalo at Northwestern University. Some good examples of (mostly) medieval armor.
Middle Ages Armour and Weapons [NB: This site has been removed from the web, but visit the Highland Park Elementary School (Austin, TX), which hosted it, for listings of major museums and collections. It's very useful!]
Regia Anglorum: Anglo-Saxon, Viking Norman and British Living History, "a nationwide society with many independent local groups, from Scotland to the south coast, who all work within a tight set of common sense rules. Regia Anglorum attempts to recreate a cross section of English life around the turn of the first millennium." An organization comparable, one suspects, to North America's Society for Creative Anachronisms. The site contains information from a sub-site once called Arms and Armour of the Anglo-Saxon and Viking Age. Takes some digging, but good information once you get there. .
Swords and Armor. "Swords, weapons, armor, Japanese Samurai, medieval knights, Scottish Claymore, battle ready shields, helmets, civil war sabers," etc. In short, an excellent resource for costumers in search of authentic period battle gear.
StageSwords.com "a provider of stage and SCA/re-enactment weapons. Many are crafted by expert swordsman and hilt-smith John Davis, who has been a fight director for over 20 years. John is best known for playing Sir Nigel Hack in the swordfighting comedy show Hack and Slash at renaissance festivals around the country. He is also a long-standing member of the IOSP and teaches annually at the Paddy Crean workshop. We are also a dealer for Hanwei weapons, well-known for their durability. Although most of our weapons are for sale, we can also make arrangements for rentals for stage productions." Looks like a good resource for period arms costuming.
Therion's Medieval Arms and Armor Page. Hardly scholarly, but several good illustrations.

Sites and Collections

Nicole Cargill-Kipar's Late 17th Century Clothing History. An extremely rich site, including resource links, history and a valuable gallery of illustrations.
18th Century Clothing web site of Colonial Williamsburg. Basic, with lots of good illustrations.
American Women's History: A Research Guide -- Clothing and Fashion. Excellent collection of links and bibliographical resources.
Army Clothing History, sponsored by the US Army Quartermaster Museum. A general history and specific uniforms from the American Civil War through the Korean War.
Bluemoon Venice. Offers a great variety of hand crafted Venetian masks, with a short history based on excerpts (in English) from Danilo Reato: "Le maschere veneziane", Arsenale Editrice
The Children's Clothing Collection, Wisconsin Historical Society Collections on line. More than 2000 articles of children's clothing, from 1800 to the 1990s. The pictorial representations are searchable by decade, gender, etc. A wonderful resource.
China Info: Chinese Traditional Information and Information on Chinese Arts and Culture. Lightweight, but some useful pictorial information for costumers and scenic artists.
Cool Old Stuff, "An Antiques and Collectibles Shop;" with many links to vintage clothing, antique and collectible resources.
Costume Gallery and Costume Gallery Hair Styles. "A Central Location on the Web for Fashion and Costume since 1996."
Costume History, a site maintained by Scott R. Robinson, Central Washington University, CWU Department of Theatre Arts.
The Costume Museum: Costume History in Japan
The Costume Page: Costuming Resources on Line. An extremely interesting collection of costuming links, developed by Julie Zetterberg Sardo. Includes links to just about every aspect of costume imaginable.
Elizabethan Costume: History and Technique, a site maintained by Margo Anderson.
Elizabethan Costume Guide, a resource brought to my attention by the students of Ms. Clark at the Monument Charter School in Washington D.C.
English Actors at the Turn of the Twentieth Century Superb color costume plates, from Players of the Day, George Newnes, ca. 1902.
Fashion-Era. Over 700 pages of fashion, costume clothing and social history.
Fashion Through Time. The text at this commercial site is rather thin but there are some good reprodutions of clothing through the ages.
Halloween Manor. No history here, but an excellent source for (somewhat) authentic low-budget costumes.
History.uk.com Good basic site for 17th century British clothing and clothing technology. "History.uk.com is the world's largest online directory of people, organizations and places associated with UK history." Very extensive collection of links to historical sites, museums, libraries, etc.
The History of Costume by Braun & Scheider, c. 1861-1880. Excellent illustrations.
A History of Japanese clothing and accessories. Well written and richly illustrated of Japanese clothing. See also the home page of Anthony J. Bryant, who maintains this site.
Kent State University Libraries and Media Services. An excellent collection of costume links and references..
La Couturière Parisienne. "This site is all about period costume, from the Middle Ages up to the early 20th century. Access 4000 costume pictures through a database . . ." This is a superb resource!
Librarian's Internet Index, Drexel University. Good costume history links.
The Library of Congress Prints and Photographs (P&P) Reading Room. The collection is searchable, a veritable treasure trove of information depicting clothing, decoration, artifacts, etc., much of which is in the public domain. The interface is Byzantine, but the rewards are worth the effort.
Mardi Gras Costume Shop Not scholarly, but an excellent resource for period costumes, accessories and masks.
Memorial Hall Museum Online: American Centuries . . . View from New England. Use the "Search the Digital Collection" link.
Motley Collection of Theatre and Costume Design, a site maintained by the University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Chamapaign. This excellent resource is housed in the Rare Book and Special Collections Library.
Multnomah County Library: excellent collection of links to "* Costumes megasites * Fashion by Century * African * American * Celti * East Indian * Edwardian * Elizabethan * French * Greek * Japanese * Medieval * Native American * Renaissance * Roman and * Victorian" clothing.
Digital South Asia Library American Institute of Indian Studies. Excellent slides of dress, architecture, etc., from India.
Minnesota Historical Society: Photographs, Art, Posters, Fine Art Photographs. Visual Resources Database. A search on "Costumes" yields over two hundred artifacts.
Rabbit Goody Historic Textiles. "Coverlets, Carpeting, 17th, 18th & 19th C. Reproduction Fabrics." The name and description says it all. Good links and photos.
"Founded in August 1997, Reconstructing History is one woman’s dream to bring information on historic clothing to the public and make this data available worldwide" reads the biographical information of Kass McGann, owner and founder of Reconstructing History. Unfortunately, this site is marred by navigational links that often don't work, or which take the viewer to unexpected locations. Probably the easiest way to navigate the site, which contains illustrations and patterns from virtually every historical period, is to use the navigational bar at the bottom (rather than the top) of each page. This is a commercial site, but contains good pictorial information and patterns for costumers.
On-line Renaissance Resources; with excellent links to historic clothing resources.
History of Shoes. Light on citations, but a good overview of the evolution of shoes, with line drawings and some excellent colored photos.
Truly Victorian, site featuring Victorian clothing patterns and history of clothing.
Carta Alta Venetian Mask Shop. Source for a variety of Venetian masks, theatrical and carnival.
USITT's Wading On the Web
World Wide Arts Resources -- Art Museums. Comprehensive listing of museums, many with clothing and cultural artifacts.

The following is a contribution from costumer Jami Borek, which I include here with links and Ms. Borek's commentary.
It is focused on 18th century clothing and costuming.
Last updated 1/16/12
©Jack Wolcott 2012