COSTUME STORAGE DATABASE
This is the newest project supported by the Costume Design & Technology Commission and funded through the USITT Commissioner's Fund.

Housed at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the Costume Storage Solutions Database is a resource for organizations looking for ideas to improve upon their theatrical costume storage operations. The Database consists of photographs of different storage configurations that are cross referenced and able to be searched in a variety of ways. In addition to being organized according to the item being stored (shoes, hats, jewelry, type of garment, etc.) photos are categorized according to size and type of theatrical operation.

It is hoped that a database containing a wide representation of the various clever storage solutions that have been developed over the years by costumers who deal with many challenges in their storage spaces will help fellow costumers with their own storage challenges.

It is also hoped that this database will provide a resource for costumers to use when speaking with their institutions about their storage needs. For that reason, we have a wide range of spaces currently represented in our database all the way from the state of the art spaces that have been built specifically for costume storage to those spaces that we might (and do!) term a costumer’s “house of horrors”.

To take a look at what is currently represented in the database, go to http://icon.dickinson.edu/v2/index.cfm and follow the instructions to log in as a "guest". On the next screen, click "Browse Collections" and then toggle "costumes" to get to the search menu for the database, or you may leave all the fields blank in order to browse the entire collection.

Please don't stop at browsing the collection because we definitely want to hear from you! In order to have a broad-based database, we need to have broad participation. No space is too crowded, too small, or too disorganized – well, at least not for the purposes of our database, and it is easy to submit photos of your storage facility if you would like to do so.

Any questions about the database project can be sent to harpermc@dickinson.edu.