Rudolf Zinggeler archive

Vals, Wallfahrtskapelle Mariä Schmerzen — Festively attired women and children in front of St Mary’s chapel, a pilgrimage destination in Vals (1911).

From 1890 onwards, the silk manufacturer Rudolf Zinggeler (1864–1954) from Richterswil (canton of Zurich) became passionately involved in photography alongside his business pursuits. His photographs mainly depict mountain landscapes in Graubünden, Valais and Ticino. His photos show landscapes, scenes from everyday life and the craftsmanship of rural populations, and have great historical, documentary and ethnographic value.

In addition to photo negatives and many thousands of prints, the Zinggeler archive contains photo albums put together by Zinggeler himself featuring original prints from the time, clearly showing his favourite themes and focal areas.

Rudolf Zinggeler’s heirs gifted his photographic estate to the Swiss National Museum in 1956. Once the collection had been catalogued and prints produced, most of it was transferred to the Federal Archives of Historic Monuments (FAHM) in 1969.

Content and scope

Brione by Zinggeler — Village scenery in Brione sopra Minusio around 1892

Photos of towns and villages, buildings, landscapes and day-to-day rural life (work, leisure, festivals)
15,280 glass and plastic negatives, black and white, in the formats 9 x 12 cm, 13 x 18 cm and 18 x 24 cm
16,340 prints from glass plates (1956–1965), mounted on card and annotated.
146 photo albums in three different formats