The Photo Archive of the Institute of the History for the Material Culture was founded in 1918. The base of collection was formed by the photos and negatives received from the Imperial Archaeological Commission (1859 – 1917). The Photo Archive includes 75 collections, which present an absolutely invaluable treasury where more than one million items connected with different humanitarities are concentrated. The early photographic materials are dated by the 1840s.

The main subjects of images from the Photo Archive: Russian and foreign archaeology (sites from the Palaeolithic age to the 18-19-th centuries), the anthropology, the ethnography, 13-20-th centuries architecture of different countries, the applied art, the epigraphy.

The archaeological material reflects various kinds of scientific activities of Russian Archaeological Institutes, Commissions and Societies of the 19 – 20-th centuries (collections of the Imperial Archaeological Commission, the Academy of the History for the Material Culture, the Russian Archaeological Society, the Institute of the History for the Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences, private collections of researchers etc.). The Photo Archive in addition to archaeological collections have accumulated a great number of documents on the subjects of artistic and social historic importance. They are kept in collections received from the State Museum Fund, the Committee of the popularisation of artistic publications, the Palace of Shuvalov Counts, the Libraries of Emperor Nikolai II and Great Princes Konstantin Nikolaevich and Konstantin Konstantinovich.

The photographs were carried out by famous Russian and European masters of photographic arts like C. C. Bulla, N. G. Matveev, I. F. Chistyakov, Alinari, Brodgi, Bonfils, Sebah and Joaillier, brothers Abdullah, Nadar, brothers Bisson and others.

The Photo Archive's collection contains material, which represents the European history, architecture and art. The photographs include 250 images concerning with German architectural sites of 1860s –1870s, 500 negatives and imprints of France (for example photos of Paris made in 1860s – 1870s), about 4500 items are connected with Italy (views and architectural monuments of 63 cities, interiors), photos of Spain including the album of Royal Family (more than 200 imprints) from their journey. Materials devoted to cultures of Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and Finland are preserved in the archive. There are photographs of Turkey (architecture and ethnography from the end of 19-th to the beginning of 20-th century), Greece (views of Athens and some other cities). The unique photos of Athos are also kept (The album presented to Great Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich, 42 imprints photographed in 1870, 222 images made in 1898).

4 albums of Russian expedition to China in 1874-1875 represent different views, architectural sites, ethnography of Mongolia and China (160 items). The American Military Mission carried out photographs of Jerusalem in the 1890s.

The Archive have collected materials on the subject of “The Orient in Photographs of the Second Half of the 19th – Beginning of the 20th Centuries”: monuments situated within the territory of the Ottoman Empire which until the 1920s comprised enormous areas in Europe, Asia and North Africa. The photographs include more than 3000 positives and negatives, which represent architectural sites in Turkey (Istanbul, Konya, Edirne, Kars, Ersinjan etc.), Salonika (the ancient Solun), and Macedonia. Photographs were taken by Russian scientists and photographers N. P. Kondakov, B. V. Farmakovsky, Ya. I. Smirnov, N. L. Okunev, I. F. Barshchevsky, D. I. Ermakov and also by West-European masters of the photographic art Sebah and Joaillier, brothers Abdullah, Nadar, brothers Bisson and others. In the end of the 19-th century and in the beginning of 20-th century, most prominent orientalists — V. D. Smirnov, N. I. Veselovsky, N. Ya. Marr, I. A. Orbeli and some others — worked in the Crimea, Caucasus and Asian Turkey on instructions of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Imperial Archaeological Commission. There are about 2700 photographs taken in the Crimea and Caucasus. Most of the materials connected with the Caucasus come from the collection of Academician N. Ya. Marr (photographs and negatives of 1890–1933). His collection (no. 23) contains 1490 negatives and 2952 imprints.

The Photo Archive possesses of a great number of photographs reflected the culture of Russia: the photos of Russian architectural sites, frescos of different Russian churches and monasteries (about 35000 items). Moscow (more then 2500 items of the 1870s –1920s) and St.- Petersburg (about 50000 negatives and imprints of the 1850s –1950s), Novgorod, Pskov, Vologda, Kostroma, Vladimir, Suzdal, Rostov, Arhangelsk, Irkutsk and many others are represented in the collection of the Photo Archive.

The subject of special interest is a series of general views of some Russian and European cities: the panorama of St.-Petersburg, 1861; the panorama of Constantinople, 1878; the panorama of Paris (the 1860s) and others.

These materials and others not mentioned here are going to be present in Internet for the specialists and for all lovers of Present.