Image collections

POX0058711 - Basque refugee boys, Aston, 1937

Picture Oxon’s image collection at Oxfordshire History Centre is one of the largest county collections with more than 400,000 photographs taken since the 1850s, and over 4,000 prints and drawings from before the age of photography.

Our images can bring the past to life, help to restore historic buildings, illustrate your research project or decorate your sitting room. In fact, their ability to educate, enthral and inform is virtually unlimited.

Our main strengths are photographs of Oxford, Oxfordshire and the River Thames, from source to sea, but we cover more than 1,000 places in over 20 counties.

How to find images

You can search our archive of images online. Where we have scanned photographs and prints from our collections, digital images of them are attached to the catalogue description, and copies can be purchased for instant download. Where original images have not yet been digitised, you can purchase bespoke copies which we will supply within 10 working days. 

Alternatively, you can visit Oxfordshire History Centre to consult non-digitised images in person - please contact us with your request at least seven days before you visit, as we need advance notice to extract them from storage.