Visual thesauri and their applications to collection management incorporate a complex mix of political, economic and systems design Issues. This paper describes and compares printed visual dictionaries and current state-of-the art visual retrieval systems. We critically examine the assumptions upon which such systems are constructed, and explore some ways in which images can be used in a text-free information system, and propose some areas here further inquiry is needed. We also present a prototype for a hypermedia visual thesaurus. Those who catalog objects are just now beginning to recognize the inadequacy of verbal language as a means of recording descriptive information on material culture or the physical world in general. The use of non-verbal representations has great potential to address the limitations of text-based taxonomies. The use of authority control and thesauri are an essentail part on any successful informationsysem. lnthis paper, we have briefly described some of the implications of a similar process for visual media.