No, that's right (about modern stock having very little historical stuff). I've been looking for modern pictures that might do as well, and so far have only found two, neither of which are particularly promising. There will be a cover artist (me) and I'm OK with doing a little bit of photoshopping (getting rid of watches and designer stubble, for example).

But yes, my main problem is that I'm operating on a very tight budget. I get $50 for the final artwork, and the price of the photos comes out of that. I'm not expecting to sell that many copies, so I'm OK for using photos from somewhere like Shutterstock or iStock. But I've already scoured them until I'm at my wit's end :)

I do like the idea of hitting the library, though! Thank you. That might work!