One million digitised images in E-Pics Image Archive

Our image archive has reached a major milestone: over one million images are now available in digital form. The ETH library has been pursuing its digital strategy for more than 20 years and now offers one of the most extensive collections of high-quality historical photographs in Switzerland. 

The E-Pics Image Archive includes the following collections: 

• 250,000 images from the external page Industrial Culture Foundation / Hans-Peter Bärtschi

• 180,000 aerial photographs from Walter Mittelholzer, Swissair, Air Color and others 

• 160,000 images from ETH professorships and institutes

• 150,000 images from private individuals, e.g. Adolf Feller's postcard collection

• 120,000 press photos from Comet Photo AG

• 43,000 Swissair images 

93 percent of the digitised images are directly accessible. They can be downloaded free of charge in the highest resolution and used freely for any purpose. 

The image archive contains an extensive and historically valuable collection of over 3.6 million analogue photographs dating back to the 1860s. ETH Library is inviting the community to participate in identifying the digitised images and sharing further information through various crowdsourcing initiatives.