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The Historical Photos Section of the IGMI Archives Service

Collage di alcune delle foto storiche conservate presso gli archivi dell'Istituto Geografico Militare

The Historical Photos Section

The Historical Photos Section is part of the IGMI Archives Service. It is in charge of collecting, cataloging, digitizing and storing the historical aerial photograms of former Italian colonies, Italy and overseas, taken from 1876 to 1945.

These photograms are very interesting from a scientific, historical and environmental point of view, such as photograms of the Alpine area, taken at the end of the nineteenth century, photograms of the Italian-Austrian front, taken during WWI; photograms of Albania, Croatia, Libya, Eritrea, Somalia, the Greek islands of the Dodecanese and North Africa, taken during the Italian colonial period and WWII.

The collection is currently made up of a considerable number of positive and negative photographic images consisting of approximately 200,000 collodion and gelatin-silver negatives on glass plates and about 20,000 positives on paper, in addition to about 80,000 aerial and land photographs of former Italian overseas territories.

Contact Details:

For any information:

    • please call: +39 055 2732274,
    • or send an e-mail to: ad22sezfototeca@geomil.esercito.difesa.it

For purchasing:

    • please call: +39 055 2732771-773-774-775,
    • or send an e-mail to: casezterzi@geomil.esercito.difesa.it

The collections:

Fondo Manzi - rilievo del ghiacciaio di Bart (1976)

FONDO TEN. MANZI

This collection consists of 34 photographic panoramas on cardboard, including 164 photographs, related to the first photo-topographic surveys, dated 1876.

Fondo Paganini, Moncenisio, 1893. L'immagine ritrae topografi al lavoro

FONDO ING. PAGANINI

This collection consists of photographic panoramas on cardboard, positives on paper and negatives on film and glass plates. It includes photographic items from 1878 to 1914.  The collection also includes panoramas taken with the photo-topographic survey system developed by Engineer Pio Paganini, in the 1930s.


Rilievo telefotografico del Forte Por (da Cima Palone) - Dicembre 1915

FONDO GRANDE GUERRA 1915/18

This collection consists of 37 big folders, containing 1376 folders of original photographic panoramas on cardboard, of which 104 panoramas digitally realized and about 8000 negative plates of various images related to the WWI period.

Karakorum 1909. Spedizione di SAR il Duca degli Abruzzi al K2

FONDO SPEDIZIONE IN KARAKORUM DEL DUCA DEGLI ABRUZZI (1909)

It consists of 21 photographic panoramas (digitally created from negative plates), realized by 22 photogrammetric stations and relating to the photo-topographic surveys carried out in Karakorum by the expedition led by H.R.H. Amedeo di Savoia Duca d'Aosta in 1909.

Fotografia dell'opera di Pont St. Luis eseguita dalla caserma CC.RR. del transito di Ventimiglia (anni 1928-37)

FONDO CAMPAGNA TELE-FOTOGRAFICA FRONTIERA OCCIDENTALE 1928-37

This collection consists of 14 big folders, containing 411 folders of panoramas on cardboard, relating to the campaign that took place in the western border, between 1928 and 1937.


Tripoli (Libia) 1935

FONDO RIPRESE AEROFOTOGRAMMETRICHE DELLE EX COLONIE ITALIANE

This collection gathers both 10X15cm and 13X18cm plates, negative and positive, as well as 30X30cm roll films and photographs on paper, classified by geographic region and year. The areas (former Italian colonies) and the years (when the photos were taken) are listed below: Albania (1928-1930-1936-1937-1941); Ethiopia (1935-1936); Dancalia (1933); Eritrea (1935); Libya (1935-1938-1939); Cyrenaica (1942); Island of Cres (1941); Croatia border (1941-1942); Dalmatia-Croatia (1942); Ionian Islands (1941); Rhodes (1941); Crete (1942); Cyclades Islands (1941)


Caporetto, località drezenca, anno 1924

FONDO RIPRESE COMMISSIONE CONFINI

This collection consists of about 7000 photographic plates of various areas of the Italian borders taken between 1920 and 1928.

FONDO MISCELLANEE

This collection consists of glass negatives of various subjects, in different formats and of a series of albums and paper copies of photos taken in various years.


Ripresa del massiccio del K2

FONDO K2 1954

This collection consists of negative and positive plates of the Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio, that reached the summit of K2, in 1954.

Donazione Strappa

FONDO DONAZIONI

This collection consists of glass negatives of various formats, as well as albums and paper copies of historical images donated to the Institute over the years.

Schizzo in carboncino da lastra fotografica del Fondo Paganini

FONDO CARBONCINI

This collection consists of 41 folders containing charcoal sketches referred to and copied from photographic plates of the Paganini Collection.


Gabes, Tunisia (anni 1941-1945)

FONDO FOTOPIANI

It consists of about 500 photo-plans of Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, France, Greece, Algeria, Syria, Malta and the former Yugoslavia realized between 1941 and 1945.

What we do

The Historical Photos Section can give information about the photographic products,  also available in preview on the IGMI website (www.igmi.org) and can also provide copies of the images both in digital and analogical format at the following prices:

  • Aerial photograms:
    • Digital aerial photogram (300dpi) ... €6,00
    • Digital aerial photogram (600dpi) ... €12,00
    • Aerial photogram on paper ... €9,00
  • Photographic panoramas, historical photos:
    • Digital photogram (150dpi) ... €16,67
    • Digital photogram (300dpi) ... €25,00
    • Photogram on paper….ask for a quote

To know more: contact us

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