British Empire Collection of Photographs

INF 10

1945-1965

This series is a collection of 8,472 photographs and film stills compiled by the Central Office of Information and illustrating the geography and way of life in British Colonial and Commonwealth territories. Each photograph has been catalogued indvidually.

Please note: Item level descriptions are transcribed from the original document labels and may not always accurately reflect the content of the photograph.

The photographs are arranged topographically, mainly by country, colony, dominion or territory, and then into broad themes. This is believed to reflect how the collection was arranged before transfer to the archives.

The countries and territories are in an alphabetical sequence. These are a mixture of 'old' colonial names and 'new' names used on independence. The reasons for the choice of one or the other are not now obvious; the name chosen does not necessarily match whether photographs were taken before or after independence. Where relevant, alternative names are included in the catalogue at subseries level.

The themes used to classify the phographs were: Religion, Social conditions, Occupations and services, The Forces [i.e. armed services], Associations and societies, Education, Communications and transport, Science, Nature, Medicine, Civil and building construction, Mining, Agriculture and food production, Arts and crafts, Recreations and sports, Geography, Events, Racial types, Antiquities, Architecture. Photographs classified under the theme 'Racial types' appear to have been selected to illustrate the ethnic diversity of the British Empire.

This classification scheme was presumably devised by Central Office of Information staff, but its origins are not known and it may have evolved over time. Not all themes were used for every country or territory and it is not always obvious why a particular photograph was grouped under one theme rather than another. For some countries and territories there is just one general album instead of separate albums by theme.

Public Record(s)

English

394 bundle(s)

Copyright restrictions may apply to some photographs.

Open

In 1977 Central Office of Information

Topics

International

Photographic prints were selected for permanent preservation. Negatives were destroyed.

The Central Office of Information is believed to have developed and maintained this collection as an image library of material to be used for publicity or marketing purposes by the UK Government. Some of the photographs were taken by government employees and others were purchased.