In the 1850s, founding members of the RPS started a collection that eventually amounted to around 270,000 photographs, thousands of pieces of photographic equipment, 26,000 books and many letters, diaries and notebooks.
It was announced that the Collection would be moving to the V&A in 2016. Since the move extensive work has been taking place to catalogue it, digitise much of it and display some of the most important work from the history of photography in the new Photography Centre. The Collection is also available to access in person in the Print Study Room.