ABSTRACT
Today, thanks to modern technology, there is a vast wealth of primary source material readily available for researcher consultation in archives and library special collections, regardless of physical location of either researcher or material. While historical by nature, these rare if not unique holdings aid in scholars’ pursuit of fresh information, which in turn leads to novel interpretations in the scholarship of fashion, costume, and dress history. This chapter aims to offer some context-providing definitions and pointers to search platforms, which will in turn lead to an inventory of primary source host institutions that particularly lend themselves to this exciting digital quest. I will focus particularly closely on the holdings of the Fashion Institute of Technology Library's unit of Special Collections and College Archives, or SPARC, as just one example of hundreds of such repositories and thousands of available digitized assets from global institutions.
