Art & Architecture Collection > Costume and Fashion History: A Guide to Resources

Introduction to the Collections

The Art & Architecture Collection houses the majority of the Library’s books and periodicals devoted to the subject of costume and fashion history. These include such categories of publications as: periodicals, monographs, survey histories, exhibition catalogs, museum permanent collection catalogs, fashion photography, biographies of designers, and studies of ethnic and folk costume.

From the 1960s and 1970s on, scholarship in costume and fashion history incorporates interdisciplinary approaches, utilizing economics, psychology, sociology, military and social history, and ethnic and gender studies. Many such multidisciplinary studies, including those that deal in broad social history contexts, along with general appeal fashion periodicals, will be found in the General Research Division (GRD). Fashion advertising and business holdings can be found in the Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL). Theater and stage costume remain the responsibility of the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center. The Branch Libraries maintain an important visual resource, the Picture Collection, at the Mid-Manhattan Library.