Photographic Archives

We hold several extensive photographic collections comprising over 100,000 images in total.

The Documentary Photographic Archive includes images from family albums and views from across the region which capture all aspects of the people and places of the county. It also contains commissioned collections and donations of photographic deposits.

The Documentary Photography Archive (DPA) is a unique archive which documents the life of the Greater Manchester region. The archive began as a rescue project by an organisation called Manchester Studies in 1975. It now contains over 100,000 images, dating from the earliest days of photography to the present day. Since 1986, the archive has been housed at the Greater Manchester County Record Office.

The vast majority of these images have been catalogued, and these catalogues are now available online on searchable databases at Access to Archives and Pastfinder