Inventory of the Image Archive

Since its founding, the Image Archive has had the responsibility of making, collecting and caring for documentary photographs from the field of art history and making them available to scholars, scientists and the general public in as high a level of quality as possible. The inventory has now grown to around 1.7 million photographs on glass plates and films in every format, for the most part in black and white, but also including some in color. The Main Areas focus on art and architecture in Germany and Europe.

The inventory of Bildarchiv Foto Marburg and the inventory of other cultural facilities can be viewed on the internet using the image database: Image Index of Art and Architecture

Inventory Expansion

In the past twentyfive years (1984-2008), the inventory of the collection at Bildarchiv Foto Marburg has grown by an average of 30,000 photographs each year. Around 470,000 negatives and slides have come from Acquired Archives, and around 205,000 have been added by producing New Photographs. The expansion of the collection has thus primarily served the purpose of safeguarding valuable older photographs and, to a lesser degree, albeit no less important, making new photographs available, as well. A not insignificant portion of the inventory is kept at Bildarchiv Foto Marburg in the form of Permanent Loans.

Total Inventory 

The makeup of the total inventory of Bildarchiv Foto Marburg was as follows in 2008: