Global Historical Photograph Archive Metadata — 30 Archives, 15,000 Records (1840–2024)
About this data
Comprehensive metadata catalog of 15,000 historical photographs from 30 major archives across 6 continents, spanning nearly two centuries of photographic history from the daguerreotype era to the digital age. ## Sources - **Library of Congress**: American historical photography, Civil War documentation, FSA/OWI collection - **National Archives UK / Imperial War Museum**: British colonial and wartime photography - **Bibliothèque nationale de France / Musée d'Orsay**: French photographic heritage, early pictorialism - **Getty Research Institute**: Fine art and documentary photography - **Smithsonian Institution**: American cultural and scientific photography - **Bundesarchiv**: German historical and press photography - **National Diet Library / National Archives of Japan**: East Asian photographic records - **George Eastman Museum**: History of photography collection - **Rijksmuseum / Victoria and Albert Museum**: European art photography - **20+ additional national archives**: Australia, India, Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, and more ## Key Features - **30 columns** covering provenance, physical properties, digitization status, and art-historical context - **15 photographic media types**: daguerreotype, calotype, tintype, albumen print, gelatin silver, platinum, cyanotype, autochrome, chromogenic, Polaroid, digital capture, and more - **45 subject classifications**: portrait, landscape, war/conflict, documentary, scientific, botanical, street scene, and others - **Era-accurate media distribution**: daguerreotypes concentrated in 1840–1860, gelatin silver prints dominating 1885–1970, digital capture rising post-2000 - **Digitization metadata**: scan resolution (DPI), pixel dimensions, file sizes for 90%+ of records - **Condition assessments**: 6-level scale from excellent to deteriorated, with age-correlated degradation - **Rights status**: public domain flags for pre-1930 works, Creative Commons, restricted, and orphan work classifications - **Significance scoring**: 0–10 scale based on historical importance, with exhibition count tracking ## Use Cases - Digital humanities research on photographic history and visual culture - Archive digitization planning and prioritization - Photography market analysis and collection valuation - Machine learning training data for historical photo dating and classification - Cultural heritage preservation studies - Media history curriculum development
Schema
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| record_id | string | |
| archive_name | string | |
| archive_city | string | |
| archive_country | string | |
| archive_continent | string | |
| accession_number | string | |
| photographer | string | |
| year_created | string | |
| month_created | string | |
| subject_city | string | |
| subject_country | string | |
| primary_subject | string | |
| secondary_subject | string | |
| medium | string | |
| color_mode | string | |
| width_cm | string | |
| height_cm | string | |
| condition | string | |
| historical_period | string | |
| is_public_domain | string | |
| has_digital_scan | string | |
| digital_resolution_dpi | string | |
| pixel_width | string | |
| pixel_height | string | |
| file_size_mb | string | |
| collection_name | string | |
| significance_score | string | |
| exhibition_count | string | |
| description_available | string | |
| rights_status | string |
Sample Data
Preview a sample of the data before downloading.
For AI Agents
# 1. Add to your agent's MCP config (claude_desktop_config.json or similar):
{
"mcpServers": {
"databazaar": { "command": "npx", "args": ["databazaar-mcp"] }
}
}
# 2. Your agent can then call:
search_datasets({ query: "Global Historical Photograph A" })
// Found: 7f61ab8a-f603-4eb5-9210-be334ba5000b
get_download_url({ dataset_id: "7f61ab8a-f603-4eb5-9210-be334ba5000b" }) // free — no API key needed# Free dataset — no API key required: curl https://api.databazaar.io/datasets/7f61ab8a-f603-4eb5-9210-be334ba5000b/download-url