HISTORICAL PHOTO COLLECTION ; The Samaritaine’s historical photo collection consists of approximately 2,000 images dating from the beginning of the 20th century through to the 1980s.

This collection primarily shows the construction and development of the Samaritaine buildings, and also employees both at work and relaxing - a precious testimony to the history of the department stores created by Ernest Cognacq. Some of the images were used as reference material for the heritage restoration campaigns during the renovation project (2015-2020) prior to the reopening in 2021.Almost three quarters of the collection consists of gelatin silver prints, with chromogenic prints (the leading technique in colour photography) representing just under a quarter of the collection. The collection is divided into four categories: <ul><li>Albums</li><li>Individual photographs</li><li>Photographic plates</li><li>Glass plates</li></ul>Work on the collection ran concurrently with the Samaritaine project. After inventory and analysis, photographs were cleaned and restored when necessary, and then stored for long-term photographic conservation and preservation.