The University of Wisconsin has a every interesting digital library of old ornaments, patterns, illustrations and the like online. They scanned in over fifty books, the oldest from the 18th century, and are offering them online. And the best part: You can get every single page in 200dpi.

That really is a gigantic resource for studies and inspiration for any kind of visual designer. The downloaded images also “may be freely used for non-profit educational and research purposes”, as stated on the copyright page.

The web design looks a tad dated, so that the functions might not be totally obvious: Choose one of the books from the list. Then pick a page, or click “Display gallery view” on the left for thumbnails. To get the other resolutions of the image of any page, use the differently sized white rectangles also on the left.

If you need a starting point, my favourite book is The grammar of ornament, by Owen Jones from 1856. It contains ornaments and patterns from roughly any epoch of human history, with lots of examples, neatly arranged. The layout of the page spreads with that old paper book feeling is breathtaking.