Highly Recommended IMAGE-BASED Historical Sources
to Support and Inspire Accurate, Creative and Engaging Research, Writing or
Other Modes of Presenting Australia’s History
Rosalie Triolo
2025
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‘album covers’ (images for vinyl records, audio-cassettes, CDs)
architectural plans
badges
board games
bookplates
buildings
buttons
cartoons
certificates (the artwork on them)
cigarette cards
clothes
crockery (such as plates, cups and saucers with images, sometimes ‘commemorative’)
cutlery (sometimes with images)
dance
emblems (human, floral, faunal)
embroidery
emojis/emoticons
exhibitions
fabric
family trees
feature films (includes stills and excerpts)
fieldtrips (‘outside’ places and the ‘views’)
flags (chosen colours and symbols)
foods
furniture
gardens
ghost signs (images on them)
grave-stone decorations
Google street views
graffiti
graphs
grave-stones
heraldry (family crests/shields)
honour boards, rolls or books (the artwork on them)
house plans
household utensils
icons
jewellery
labels
lace
lithographs
logos
machinery
maps
masks
medals (images on them)
models
money (images on notes and coins)
monuments (style or images on them)
mosaics
musical instruments
neon signs
newsreels
paintings
photographs
playing cards (images on them)
postcards (illustrations on them)
posters/prints
pottery
puppetry
rock art
ropes and knotwork
rugs
scrapbooks
sculptures
sheet music (illustrations)
shields (shape and images on them)
sketches
specimens (including preserved plants and animals)
stained glass windows
stamps
statues
street plans, maps directories
street signs (such as ‘U-turn’)
swap cards
tapestries
tattoos
teaspoons (‘travel’ collectibles)
telephone cards (plastic for payphones)
television (advertisements, documentaries and mini-series)
theatre (live)
tokens (convict, Great Depression, machine-operating)
toys
transport methods (many kinds)
tree carvings / scar trees
trophies
video games
YouTube clips
wall-paperwoodwork