Leiden University Libraries Digital Collections

Photography Print Room

Photographic images on paper, translucent materials and objects, fine art as well as vernacular, of all major artistic currents and technical developments of the medium, from the Print Room Collection

Anoniem, Vues de la cathédrale d'Amsterdam (PK-F-MM.3282)

Photography (Print Room)

The photography collections of the former ‘Prentenkabinet’ (Print Room) consist of circa 150.000 photographs and photographic objects that reflects the history of the photographic medium itself. In 2002, the Print Room collections moved to the University Library, which also holds other photo collections that explore and present the rest of the world, with an emphasis on Asia. Among them are the loan collection of KITLV (over 200.000 photographs) and that of the the former Kern Institute (70.000 photographs).

Within the Dutch heritage landscape, the former Print Room photography collection holds a specific position. It is the oldest museological photo collection of the Netherlands. In 1953, it was started with the aim to record the technological and artistic developments of the photographic medium. In that respect it differed from the documentary photo collections that existed up to that date in archival institutions. In the decades after its foundation, the Leiden photo collection was expanded with older collections, some of which originated even in the beginning of the twentieth century. It resulted in a organically shaped photo collection, that pictures the history of photography from its invention in 1839 up to now.