Libraries and archives the world digitize books and images and provide accurate information about them. These sites also provide information on re-using the images legally.
Europeana - a portal that searches the digital collections of libraries, archives, and museums all around Europe.
New York Public Library Digital Collections runs the gamut of remarkable materials
Victoria and Albert Museum Fashion Exhibition - Spanning four centuries, the V&A’s Fashion collection is the largest and most comprehensive collection of dress in the world.
Hathi Trust - Digitized public domain books, searchable and downloadable.
Internet Archive - Digitized books and media, some public domain and other available for digital "check out."
Text databases can contain books, articles, dissertations, plays and other primary sources. The options below may especially be of use, but you can find many more on our Databases A-to-Z page. Some are "full text," meaning they provide access to the entire article, book, etc., while other are indexes of larger collections and require you to look elsewhere for the full text.
In addition to text databases, UWM subscribes to a lot of resources that have what would be considered primary source visual information.