Image Archive
As a visual memory, ETH Library’s Image Archive has extensive and valuable holdings of more than three and a half million historical photographs. A large selection of them has been digitised. You can search the images in external pageETH Library @ swisscovery or on E-Pics Image Archive.
Holdings – visual cultural property systematically archived
Are you looking for historical documentary photographs, oblique or vertical aerial photographs or portraits of important scientists? ETH Library’s Image Archive collects extensive image material on various topics from science, research and technology. These include valuable historical collections from photo archives and the personal papers of private individuals and institutions. With the successive indexing and selective digitization of these collections, a comprehensive image database is available online.
- Period: starting in the 1860s
- Historical photographs of buildings, institutes, lecture halls and laboratories of ETH Zurich
- Photographs on the history of science and technology
- Views of landscapes and localities of Switzerland and other countries
- Adolf Feller Postcard Collection with views of Switzerland and other countries
- Period: 1987 to 2010
- Comparative documentary photographs of changes in landscapes and townscapes in Switzerland, mostly as long-term observations, taken by professional photographers
- Topics: settlement areas, fallow land and agricultural land, transport buildings, industrial and residential buildings, transport and tourism projects, renaturation and reforestation projects, storm damage
- Photographs and drawings from the personal papers of former professors
- Image holdings from ETH institutes and scientific societies affiliated with ETH Zurich
- Photographs in personal papers are documented in indexes of personal papers and in the Archivdatenbank Online
Image holdings in personal papers
- Ackeret, Jakob; Ammann, Othmar H.
- Friedländer, Immanuel; Frey-Wyssling, Albert
- Heim, Albert; Heim, Arnold; Huber-Stockar, Emil
- Jaray, Paul
- Labhardt, Eugen
- Maillart, Robert; Meyer-von Gonzenbach, Rolf
- Neuenschwander, Gustav
- Plaskowski, Zbigniew
- Ruzicka, Leopold
- Scherrer, Paul; Schröter, Carl; Stodola, Aurel
- Waldmeier, Max; Wehrli, Leo; Wolfer, Alfred
Image holdings from institutes and bodies of ETH Zurich (selection)
- Academic Engineering Association (AIV)
- Swiss Federal Observatory
- Geobotanical Institute (Rübel Foundation)
- Geological Institute
- Glaciological Commission of the SANW
- Institute of Aerodynamics
- Institute for the Preservation of Monuments
- Institute of Electrical Engineering
- Institute of Plant Cultivation
- Institute of Traffic Planning and Transport Engineering
- Laboratory for Inorganic Chemistry
- Photographic Institute
Searching and use
- The image holdings of the ETH Library are being successively and selectively digitized.
- On the E-Pics Image Archive, you can download images that have already been digitized free of charge in web resolution (1,024 × 768 pixels) and as high-resolution JPGs and TIFFs. The licensing type and terms of use are stored individually for each image.
- For research on photographs that have already been digitized but not yet published on the Search Portal or on the E-Pics Image Archive, database access is available in the Reading Room Collections and Archives.
- Documents and indexes that have not yet been digitized can be viewed in the Reading Room Collections and Archives. .
- You can order new digitized copies or high-quality prints of images for a fee.
- Use is subject to copyright regulations.
Crowdsourcing
- Every image can be commented on directly on E-Pics Image Archive in case of inaccurate or erroneous image information.
- Selected images can be georeferenced using the external pageSmapshot collaborative platform.
- The Crowdsourcing blog: News and information on experiences of the community keeps you up to date on the ongoing work and projects in the Image Archive.
- In the blog on the Participate page and on the external pageETH Library’s YouTube channel, you will find instructions on what you need to do to help with crowdsourcing.
