Images of the past

Dutch archives and libraries often have a large collection of photos, maps, drawings, picture postcards and other images. Several archives (and a few libraries) are making their images available via internet. The Beeldbank Amsterdam (image database Amsterdam), for instance, has almost 250,000 images available on their website.

The Dutch National Archive also has an online image collection, with half a million photos, mostly from after 1880. The main regional or local image collections are listed (by province) on my website, under Regional genealogy (more will be added). Many collections are listed at beeldbanken.startpagina.nl (in Dutch).

Unfortunately, not one of the major image collections have an English search interface (the Rotterdam Archive seems to be the only one with an English introduction, but even here the search interface is in Dutch).

Images found in these collections may usually be downloaded for your own use, but for reproduction (also on the internet) you will need to get permission from the image owner.