The National Museum Collection of Photographs and Print
The National Museum of Iceland holds Iceland´s largest public collection of images. The collection is varied: drawings, watercolours, prints, graphic prints and paintings, but principally photographs in various forms. A total of about 6.5 million photographs are in the collection.
The bulk of the
National Museum´s photographic collection consists of collections of plates and
films taken by individual photographers. The majority are portraits. The
collection contains 229 collections by individual photographers, both
professional and amateur, from the period 1866-1993. The majority date from the
period 1890-1960. The collection also contains 51 specialized collections of
different sorts, such as the Portrait Collection, Photograpic and Print
Collection, Postcard Collection, and photographic archives from the Federation
of Icelandic Cooperative Societies, the daily Morgunblaðið newspaper and the
RÚV national broadcasting company.
The museum´s experts carry out research relating to its collections, and Icelandic photographic history in general. There are two exhibition spaces devoted to photographic exhibitions on the groundfloor of the museum. The museum has published several books on the work of individual photographers and the history of photography. The museum has a photographic studio which processes pictures for the museum and makes copies for clients. Photographs are lended for a fee to publishers, newspapers and film makers, and copies of photographs can be made to order for the general public.
