Photograph Archive
The Royal Western Australian Historical Society houses a collection of rare photographs dating back to the introduction of photography in Western Australia in the 1850s. The collection consists not only of paper-based photographic images but also of glass plates which were first used in photography, and of tintypes and ambrotypes. Many of the earliest photographs are images of people and reflect the practice that developed of leaving photographs in place of calling cards when visiting friends and relatives. There are approximately 20,000 photographs in the collection; about 3,300 records, including images are available on the Collections Mosaic data base.
Until the task of automating the catalogue of the entire 20,000 photographic collection is complete, it will not be made available online. In the meantime, we encourage you to visit the Society to search for items of interest to you. For further details on access to and use of the photograph archive contact the Society.
Orders cannot be made on-line at this stage. Please contact the Society’s Library for further information. Email histwest@git.com.au or telephone: 61 8 9386 3841.