Several in-house online databases and a small selection of Internet-accessible
finding aids are available to assist researchers in locating the images they
need for their projects.
This database offers documentation and a growing number
of digital images relating to objects in the collections of the Museums
of Colonial Williamsburg. Reference
services are available and highly recommended for anyone wishing to
learn about all of the objects in the museum collections relating to a
particular topic. A selection of images of recent museum acquisitions
can be viewed at New
in the Collection.
This in-house database, accessible only to researchers on site at
the library, is administered by the Dept of Photographic Services
and provides access to over 30,000 digital images taken by Colonial Williamsburg’s
staff photographers. Examples of many of these images can be found throughout
the Colonial Williamsburg website, such as illustrations in the Colonial
Williamsburg Journal and Slideshows.
A growing number of digitized versions of historic black and white photo
collections housed in Special Collections are also part of this database.
Reference services are available for outside patrons who are unable to
view the database on-site.
A subject access guide to a collection of over two hundred photographs
taken in 1935 by F.S. Lincoln, a well-known architectural photographer,
to promote Williamsburg upon its opening as a living history museum. Digital
images of this collection can be viewed via the Foundation’s in-house
Media Access & Retrieval System.
An archival finding aid to a unique photography collection that depicts
the African-American experience in Williamsburg, Virginia from the 1930s
to the 1960s.
A growing gallery of high-quality images taken by Colonial Williamsburg’s
official photographers is available for viewing via the Photoshelter website.
Prints of the images may be ordered in a variety of sizes and finishes via
this online shopping site.
The Postcard Collection consists of postcards of Williamsburg dating
from the early 1900s to the present, including images of the town prior
to its restoration. In addition the collection contains a small number
of postcards of neighboring historic sites, such as Jamestown and Yorktown.
The majority of the Foundation’s photo archives -- over 780,000
black and white photos, slides, and transparencies, (late 19th-century
to the early 1990s) -- are organized by subject. This list offers a topical
glimpse of the collection.
