Catalog of photographs

Card catalog of photographs encompasses the collections of the WUL's Graphic Collection Department, thematically related to Silesia and Lusatian regions. It includes views of towns, landscapes, portraits of people connected with the regions, as well as works by both amateur and professional photographers and photography studios operating in Silesia and Lusatia. The photographs and a few reproductions included here date from before 1946.

The catalog was created between years 1988 and 2000 by Iwona Bińkowska (using earlier cards by Ewa Kica and Ryszard Len). It includes a total of 5,674 items (of the 14,394 listed in the inventory): loose photographs, portfolios, albums, leporellas, and binders. The catalog has been closed and is not being updated. Photographs with call numbers above 9,000 are available in the Electronic catalog of Graphic Collection Department - Inventory of graphic collections – Reader module.

Catalog structure

The catalogue consists of three parts:

• Topographic (call number) catalog – contains the most comprehensive information about individual photographs: call number, image description, author, dimensions, physical characteristics of the photograph and its framing, bibliography. If a digital reproduction is available, a preview of the image is provided.
• Alphabetical catalog of photographers and photography studios – includes approximately 250 entries (photographers' names and studio names). Each entry includes basic information about the author's work and a bibliography (the literature on the subject does not include sources such as address books). Additionally, catalog indicates whether the GCD's collections includes other uncataloged works by a given photographer.
• Subject catalog – organizes photographs by subject (including cityscapes, architecture, landscapes, portraits, art reproductions, folk costumes, documents, and albums). Most cards are repeated across multiple sections, facilitating searches based on various criteria.