Where could I get research materials on the history of Tap Dance Costume?

Hi Tara, I am a theatre student at Smith College in Northampton, MA. I am working on a senior honor's thesis on costume design for tap dance. Not surprisingly, there is a lack of research on this topic. I am searching through the web trying to find resources. Since you seem a very Web literate costume designer (I myself am not -- Web literate , that is) I was wondering if you had any advice about trying to find research materials on my topic... Sorry to bother you if you don't have the time. By the way, I grew up in Georgia -- I saw that you got your PhD at UGA. :) Thank you, Diana

Actually, no. I would say that there is nothing on the web that I know of on this topic. I'd guess that some of the costume designs for the Paris Music Halls collection at UGA's Hargett library site would be for costumes used in tap numbers, but it's anybody's guess which is which. There are also some photos in the Library of Congress site on Turn of the Century Vaudeville acts, but I don't know if these include tap acts. I think the best resources, apart from old films, would be the regular physical archives of theatre photos at the NYPL and other libraries, the web isn't as full of visual information as people think it is just now [Spring 1997]. If you do find good sources, you might consider putting them up on the web yourself when you finish, so that others may surf to you for info. That's pretty much my goal now; putting visual info on the web so anyone can access it. ---Tara 

Thanks for your help. I'll let you know if I ever put my project on the web. I think that many of the ideas you gave me will be good places to look. Thanks again, Diana