When the Victoria & Albert Museum Photographic Studio – the first dedicated studio of its kind – was founded by Henry Cole over 150 years ago, photography was in its infancy. The intention was to use the ‘new art or science of photography, as a means of recording examples of good design in architecture, industry and the applied arts. Cole also saw it as a way of disseminating images of the museum’s collections ‘within the purse of the ordinary man or woman.’

Just one year later – in 1857 – the Department of Science and Art at the museum was using photographic prints for educational purposes at the Schools of Art and the Art Library was accumulating fine art prints to expand the visual dimension of its collection, which had previously been stocked with ‘indifferent reproductions.’