What's In the MdHS Photo Collections?

The MdHS Photograph Collections include several major components:

1. The Numbered Collections constitute the largest part of the MdHS photograph collections not previously owned by the Peale Museum/BCLM. There are nearly 200 numbered collections, the largest of which is PP30, the Hughes Studio Photograph Studio Collection.

2. The Subject Vertical File has approximately 17,000 photographs.  They are not arranged by source, as in the Numbered Photograph Collections, nor are they assigned catalog numbers. They are arranged by subject in a hierarchy that is alphabetical, geographical, and chronological.

3. The Baltimore City Life Museum (BCLM) Collection begins in the late 1840s with particular strength in the first half of the twentieth century. Images date from 1849 to the 1980s. Included are daguerreotypes, paper prints, glass plate and film negatives, and slides (lantern and 35 mm). The collection is particularly strong in documentation of architecture and the Baltimore Harbor. Ca. 57,200 items are cataloged in an inventory database, of which ca. 28,600 are available for research and searchable online.

4. The Portrait Vertical File has approximately 6,300 portraits of individuals or groups. They are arranged alphabetically, by last name, then first name.

5. The Cased Photographs include approximately 550 daguerrotypes, tintypes, and ambrotypes, most of which are portraits.