Historical archives

The material is produced as part of the activities of photographic firms, photographers or individuals with a particular interest in photography. The museum has acquired the content of the archives through the acquisition of the collections of Preus Museum of Photography in 1994 and later as gifts or purchases after the establishment of the national photography museum in 1995.

Over 140 shelving meters of archival material

The museum holds ca 141 shelving meters of private archives from both national and international creators. The contents and the size varies from small archives with clippings, notes and books, to larger archives with extensive photographic material in addition to letters and documents.

The collections hold some archives after different organizations:

•    Oslo Camera Club (Oslo Kamera Klubb) (1921- ca. 1980)
•    The Photo Gallery Foundation (Stiftelsen Fotogalleriet) (1977-1990)
•    The photo archive after the newspaper Morgenposten (1953-1970)

The museum has archives after photographers such as:

•    Thomas Blehr (1875-1949)
•    Elisabeth Meyer (1899-1968)
•    Leif Preus (1928-2013)

For more information about archives owned by Preus Museum, please see the full listing (in Norwegian only).

Research and education

The museum uses the archives mostly for research and to communicate the history of photography.
The last main archival project was the exhibition "Fragments - stories from the archive of Elisabeth Meyer" and the book "Elisabeth Meyer - Reports from the world 1920-1950"

Contact us

Loans from and access to archives are open to external users - with the proviso that the material is organized.
Inquiries may be directed to the photo archivist Hege Oulie hege.oulie@preusmuseum.no or curator Hanne Holm-Johnsen hanne.holm-johnsen@preusmuseum.no.