Library

Our library is temporarily closed while work is being carried out on our collections, but you can still borrow books from us. We have a large selection of photobooks and theoretical literature on photography. Please get in touch if you are looking for something specific, or if you need access to research materials or other forms of dissemination.

You can search our library through our book catalogue.

If you find something you are interested in, you can request it through your local library via interlibrary loan, or contact us by email at maja.holst.svendsen@preusmuseum.no.

The collection is extensive, making it unique not only in Norway, but also in a European context. It contains more than 15,000 registered volumes in 25–30 languages, spanning more than 500 years of publishing history. The library covers artistic and cultural-historical photography, the prehistory and history of photography, photographic techniques, and secondary literature relevant to the field. Among these materials, we also hold a unique collection of approximately 300 titles of scientific publications.

An important part of the collection consists of International and Norwegian photobooks, several of which are first editions. The collection also includes The Pencil of Nature, published in 1844 by William Henry Fox Talbot, which is considered the first photobook.

Our periodicals collection is one of the most comprehensive in Europe, comprising more than 1,000 titles related to the field. Among them are complete runs of the periodicals 291 (1915–1916), Camera Notes (1897–1903), and Camera Work (1903–1917), in all of which the renowned art photographer Alfred Stieglitz was involved as a publisher.

The library also holds a special collection of correspondence, including letters from prominent figures in the history of photography, such as photography’s inventor himself, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1787–1851).