Photo Archive - Historic Image Collections

Library of Congress. American Memory is a gateway to primary source material of more than 7million digital items from over 100 collections related to the history and culture of The United States. Links, Databases & Resources focus on history and cultures around the world. Category subjects include ; Advertising, African American History, Architecture, Landscape, Cities, Towns, Culture, Folklife, Environment, Conservation, Government, Law, Immigration, American Expansion, Literature, Maps, Native American History, Performing Arts, Music, Presidents, Religion, Sports, Recreation, Technology, Industry, War, Military & Women's History - [Read more]

The Metropolitan Museum's Department of Photographs surveys the history of photography from its invention in the 1830s to the present. The collection of more than 15,000 works is largely European and American, with some representation of other parts of the world, particularly Japan. The cornerstones of the Metropolitan's department are four important collections: The Rubel Collection, with superb examples of British photography from the first three decades of the medium's history; The Alfred Stieglitz Collection, with masterpieces of the Photo-Secession movement (1902?17) and related Pictorialist photography; The Ford Motor Company Collection of American and European photography between the World Wars; and the personal archive of the American photographer Walker Evans (1903?1975). - [Read more]

The Archives Center holds significant collections that consist largely of photographs. Most notable are the Underwood & Underwood Glass Stereograph Collection, 1895-1921 (28,000 images); the Donald H. Sultner-Welles Collection, 1951-1980 (87,000 color transparencies taken around the world); and the Arthur d'Arazien Industrial Photographs, ca. 1939-1984, consisting of thousands of black and white and color photographs by a leading industrial and advertising photographer. Other photographic collections document specialized scientific or cultural fields, such as the Hazen Collection of Band Photographs and Ephemera, ca. 1818-1931. Many of the manuscript and advertising collections include photographs as well.The Archives Center acquires photographs whose subject content relates to the various curatorial fields of the Museum. By contrast, the Museum's Division of Photographic History collects photographs directly related to the aesthetic, technical, and scientific history of photography - [Read more]

Photographs consist of more than 500,000 prints and negatives that document New York City and its inhabitants from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Some of New York's earliest photographic views are represented in the waxed-paper negatives of Victor Prevost, and the proliferation of the medium is exemplified by the Byron Collection of more than 22,000 images chronicling New York life from 1892 through 1942. The well-known Jacob Riis collection reveals the Lower East Side's poverty and squalor in the late nineteenth century. Berenice Abbott's stunning Changing New York, a WPA photographic project, documents New York City in the 1930s - [Read more]

The National Archives of England, Wales and the United Kingdom has one of the largest archival collections in the world, spanning 1000 years of British history, from Domesday Book of 1086 to government papers recently released to the public. Manuscripts include diverse sample images from Printed indulgence by Caxton, the earliest printed document, 1476 to Letter from Anne Boleyn, with her signature, April 1529. Colonial & Empire includes maps & documents : First American newspaper, published in Boston, 25 September 1690, One of 24 original printed copies of the Declaration of Independence, 4/5 July 1776, Authority for Henry VII to grant a letters patent to John Cabot for a voyage to discover new lands, 5 March 1496. Limited online images - [Read more]

Emilio Segre Archives. A collection of some 25,000 historical photographs, slides, lithographs, engravings, and other visual materials, the Emilio Segrè Visual Archives is part of the Niels Bohr Library of the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics. The collection focuses on American physicists and astronomers of the twentieth century, but includes many scientists in Europe and elsewhere, in other fields related to physics, and in earlier times - [Read more]

The National Archives of The United States. 14 million still pictures, 9 million arial photographs, maps, charts, and a comprehensive collection of Moving Images. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent Federal agency that preserves the nation's history and defines us as a people by overseeing the management of all Federal records - [Read more]

The Imperial War Museum Photograph Archive is a huge resource of more than 8 million photographs. The online database currently summarises most of these images in groups. To assist researchers, many popular photographs are also catalogued individually and accompanied by thumbnail images. Database searches will display details of individual photographs followed by records of relevant groups. Online subjects include ; War on Land, War at Sea, War in the Air, War & Peace, Prisoners, Civilians, Commonwealth, Truth & Propaganda, Burial & Remembrance - [Read more]

Smithsonian Images. Browse or search through selected images from the Collections of the Office of Imaging and Photographic Services. Included are images from current exhibits, Smithsonian events and comprehensive historic collections - [Read more]

UCR/California Museum of Photography maintains the world's largest collection of original stereoscopic prints and negatives. The Keystone-Mast Collection represents the archive of the Keystone View Company of Meadville, PA (active from 1892-1963). Its 350,000 items, of which 33,637 records can be searched online including collection by artist such as Ansel Adams, Will Connell and the Bingham Technology Collection, manufactures such as Kodak, ICA, Imperial, Tru-vue and many others. - [Read more]

Library of Congress Prints & Photographic Division Online Catalogue. Contains digital images representing a rich cross section of stills from other units of the library collections - [Read more]

University of Washington Libraries. The Special Collections include ; The Cities & Buildings Database - Contains nearly 10,000 digitized images of architecture, buildings and cities drawn from across time & throughout the world / 19th Century Actors Photographs / Alaska, Western Canada and United States Collection / Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition Photographs / American Indians of the Pacific Northwest / Albert H. Barnes Photographs / William F. Boyd Photograph Album / Boyd and Braas Photographs / Centralia Massacre Collection / Robert Henry Chandless Photographs / Civil War Letters Collection / Fashion Plate Collection / Eric A. Hegg Photographs / Harriman Alaska Expedition of 1899 / Frank La Roche Photographs / Frank La Roche Photographs / Seattle Photographs /.......... - [Read more]

J Paul Getty Museum ; The department of photographs collection focuses on the artistic achievements of individual photographers such as William Henry Fox Talbot, Gustave Le Ray, Roger Fenton, Julia Margaret Cameron, Carlton Watkins, Alfred Stieglitz, Walker Evens, Alfred Sander, Man Ray and Alvarez Bravo. Photojournalism & Social Documentary Photography. Past Exhibitions feature various image collections - [Read more]

Royal Photographic Society. Formed in 1853 the collection comprises of over 120,000 images (including positives, negatives, images on glass, on paper, on metal, on film, in black and white, in colour and thousands of other variations); over 6,000 items of photographic equipment, 13,000 books and 13,000 bound volumes of periodicals, 5,000 letters, research notes, catalogues, scrapbooks etc. directly relating to specific stages in photography's growth and history. It covers the period from pre-photography, late eighteenth century writings, until the present day. But the strengths are undoubtedly nineteenth and early twentieth century British pictorial work - [Read more]

Take a trip through our collective past with the BBC archives and discover themed collections of radio and TV programmes, documents and photographs. Explore who we are and see how attitudes have changed over the years through selections from an archive which began over 70 years ago - [Read more]

Picturing the Century : One Hundred Years of Photography from the National Archives," commemorates the end of the 20th century with a selection of photographs from the vast and varied holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). NARA photographs vividly capture the sweeping changes of the last one hundred years. They depict both the mundane and high political drama, society's failings as well as its triumphs, war's ugliness as well as its bravery. This exhibition is arranged in chronological "galleries" as well as seven "portfolios" of talented photographers well represented in NARA's holdings - [Read more]

New York Public Library. The Photography Collection contains nearly 300,000 original photographic prints, from the medium's 150+ year history, representing an international range of photographers and comprising a thorough survey of subjects and processes. Highlights of the historical collection include: the Robert N. Dennis Collection of Stereoscopic Views, the Spalding Baseball Collection, the Pageant of America Collection, major collections of work by Berenice Abbott and Lewis Hine, and the Romana Javitz Collection which features works by Alice Austen, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Minor White, among others. With its roots in the Library's nineteenth century origins, the photography collection holds important 19th-century topographical work by Maxime du Camp, Desire Charnay, Francis Frith, Edouard-Denis Baldus and John Thomson, plus important 19th-century photographers of the western United States, such as William Henry Jackson, Timothy O'Sullivan, and Carleton E. Watkins - [Read more]

George Eastman House. Dating from the invention to the present day. Photography, Motion Pictures & Technology. Still photography collection sbjects include ; American West Collections, Auto Racing ca 1910s, Civil War Collections, Fictional Photography, Lewis Hine - Empire State Building, Personages, Photomosaic of George Eastman, Sexist/Girlie, Racial Stereotypes ,Central Park, New York 1862, Circuses, Daguerreotypomania, "Degas Visual Environment" Dogs, India, Inventions, Jericho, Mexican Daguerreotypes, The Moon, New Guinea Stereo Views, New York City Stereo Views, Niagara Stereo Views, Nineteenth Century Balloons, People & Cameras, Selected Topographics, Sheep, Siam - [Read more]

Historic Films owns or represents over 45,000 hours of 1895-1990 Vintage Film Footage. The special collections libraries consist of all genres of motion picture films including Historical Newsreels including Pathe News & Television News, Musical Short Subjects in Comedy Film, Feature Films, Silent Films, Movie Slapstick, Classic Television Commercials and Shows, Beauty Shots, Nature and Wildlife, Home Movies, Outtakes, Industrial Films, Sales Films, and Cartoons. The specialized musical film collections cover American roots music, including the Roots of Blues, Country, Southern Gospel, American Folk Music and Rock and Roll. Good selection of Online Comp Reels - [Read more]

Images of Empire from the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum is one of the largest dedicated online resource of still and moving images on the British colonial period. The digitised material is part of the museum's holding of over one million still images and 400 hours of film footage, dating from circa 1860 to the present day. Key themes include colonial life, indigenous cultures, political and royal events, wars and conflicts, notable personalities, ceremonial and sporting occasions.... - [Read more]