Our collection

Colin Harding takes a quick peek at the spooky world of photographic ghosts, from the first accidental images to the charlatans of the Crewe Circle.

Containing millions of photographs from the first half of the 20th century, the Daily Herald Archive is one of the gems of our collection.

We’ll be counting down to the big 3-0 by sharing some of our biggest achievements and most interesting collection items, and we want you to share your memories.

This year’s IMD is all about memory, creativity and social change—something which is close to our hearts, and inseparable from our collection.

Flickr is rebooting the Commons, and they’ve just launched two brand new institutions.

In this week’s post about dating your photographs, Colin Harding shows you how to identify a collodion positive, also known as an ambrotype, using just a few simple clues.

Dating early photographs by process and format can be a useful skill, especially if sitters’ clothing offers no clues. Colin Harding provides some expert advice on how to unlock their secrets.

Helen Messinger Murdoch (1862–1956) was a remarkable woman—one of the earliest colour photographers and one of the first female aviators. Colin Harding tells her story.

Emily takes a tour of our Collections and Research centre and finds out that there are thousands of objects just waiting to be uncovered.

Our curators have chosen their favourites from new additions to the Flickr Commons: wheels at sea, a portrait of a photographer, and an intriguing image of a dog and his best friend.

To celebrate Bradford City’s progress to the final of the 2013 Capital One Cup, we’ve selected photographs from our collection showing the club’s highs and lows over recent years.

These images from our collection document attempts to reach the summit of the world’s most unforgiving mountain.