Photographs

Auswahl historischer Fotografien

Overview

The Prints and Drawings Department of the National Library collects analogue photography, daguerreotypes, negatives and slides with a particular emphasis on views of places and special topics related to Switzerland in the 19th to 21st centuries.

Picture postcards

The Prints and Drawings Department of the Swiss National Library collects picture postcards from the 19th to the 21st centuries.

Views of places

The Prints and Drawings Department of the Swiss National Library collects photographs of places and landscapes from the 19th to the 21st centuries.

Portraits

The Prints and Drawings Department of the National Library collects portraits of important personalities in the social, cultural and artistic life of Switzerland and other countries, from the early days of photography to the present day.
Meydenbauerkamera

Meydenbauer cameras

The only known cameras of Albrecht Meydenbauer, one of the inventors of photogrammetry, can be found in the Swiss National Library.
Wehrli Zürich

Photoglob-Wehrli

The Photoglob-Wehrli archive brings to life the picture postcard boom that took place in the early days of tourism from the mid-19th century. It consists of photographic documents from all stages of production.
Half-length portrait of Annemarie Schwarzenbach sitting on the beach

Annemarie Schwarzenbach

Swiss writer, journalist and photographer Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908–1942) left an extensive collection of important photographs in addition to her literary work.
Genf (Foto: Eduard Spelterini)

Eduard Spelterini

Around 130 images by the ballooning pioneer Eduard Spelterini from the period between 1893 and 1924 are preserved in the Swiss National Library’s Prints and Drawings Department. 120 Spelterini pictures are available for unrestricted use on Wikimedia Commons.
Stauss

Niklaus Stauss

The Niklaus Stauss photo archive is one of the largest private photography collections in Switzerland. Its pictures provide an insight into social, cultural and artistic life in Switzerland and beyond.
Avenches, Stadtansicht Grande Rue, 1899

Max van Berchem

At the turn of the 20th century, Max van Berchem from Geneva photographed buildings of art-historical importance in Switzerland. His photographic collection comprised pictures of towns, villages and buildings from 1898 to 1907.
Vals, Wallfahrtskapelle Mariä Schmerzen

Rudolf Zinggeler

The silk manufacturer Rudolf Zinggeler took photos mainly in the Swiss cantons of Valais, Ticino and Graubünden between 1890 and 1936. His work depicts towns and villages, landscapes and day-to-day rural life.
zuest1

Andreas Züst

The photographer and natural scientist Andreas Züst (1947–2000) was a legendary figure in the Swiss art world. The archive in the Prints and Drawings Department documents his highly diverse work.
https://www.nb.admin.ch/content/snl/en/home/collections/image/photographs.html