#  About 

 



*Harvard’s History of Photography Timeline* offers a view into the history of photography through selected photographs in the University’s libraries, museums, and archives. Harvard holds nearly 10 million photographs that have served as primary source documents for teaching and research in the sciences and humanities since the mid-nineteenth century. The timeline highlights the strengths of Harvard’s collections, which document an encyclopedic range of subjects and include the work of noted nineteenth- and twentieth-century photographers.  
   
All photographs featured in the timeline have catalog records in Harvard’s online visual materials catalog and can be accessed by clicking on an image. While not intended as a comprehensive view of the history of the medium, the *History of Photography Timeline* will continue to expand through contributions from Harvard curators and collections managers.

Further information about Harvard’s photograph collections can be found in *The Directory to Photographs at Harvard*. This online guide provides detailed descriptions of holdings in more than 50 repositories throughout the University.  
   
**Curators**  
Melissa Banta and Robert Burton

**Timeline Designer**  
Thomas Dodson

**Contributing Repositories**  
Arnold Arboretum  
Baker Library  
Cabot Library  
Fine Arts Library  
Fung Library  
General Artemas Ward House Museum  
Gray Herbarium Archives  
Harvard Art Museums  
Harvard College Observatory  
Harvard University Archives  
Harvard-Yenching Library  
Houghton Library  
Law School Library  
Massachusetts General Hospital  
Milman Parry Collection  
Peabody Museum  
Radcliffe College Archives  
Schlesinger Library  
Harvard Theatre Collection   
Theodore Roosevelt Collection  
Tozzer Library