![[Search Room Picture] Staff member working photographic database.](http://www.beamishcollections.com/AdvHTML_Upload/searchroom01.jpg)
The photographic archive at Beamish consists of some 300,000 images representing everyday life in the North of England from 1860 to the present day. The collection illustrates towns and street scenes, rural life and farming scenes, industrial scenes of coal mining, lead mining, iron and steel as well as northern buildings and topography. Also included are many modern record photographs showing buildings of interest in the North East region.
![[Staff member in photo archive cold store searching for negatives]](http://www.beamishcollections.com/AdvHTML_Upload/coldstore.jpg)
Many photographs are by well known photographers including Fenton, Frith, Pattison, Edis, etc as well as unknown photographers. The photographic archive houses complete collections from the Durham Advertiser Newspaper, the Agricultural Gazette and Farmers Guardian, the Consett Steel Company Collection, and a selection of the Phillipson Collection. To add to these collections, Beamish has recently acquired the Huwood's Mining Machinery and ICI Teeside collections.
The archive includes images of prints, illustrations, ephemera as well as objects in the museum's collections. The photographic collection is actively being digitised, fast access being provided via the computers in the museum’s search room.
The collection is also sustained by regular donations from the general public.
Please see below for a special selection from the photographic archive’s collection.
