The picture archive contains about 100.000 photographs. These are mainly documenting everyday life and travel as well as nature shots taken prevalently in Namibia and South Africa. 

The Basel Mission 21 Picture Archive is a point of reference for everyone who is interested in the encounter between European and African and Asian cultures between 1850 and 1950. The photographs you can find here were mostly taken by missionaries. But they do not reflect a narrow view of mission but also focus on themes such as health, education or trade.

Most Photographs are available online: www.bmarchives.org

The Museum der Kulturen has been sytematically working with photographs since 1915. Today the picture archives contains exceptional collections of about 250.000 pictures taken during fieldwork, 48.000 of these being historic shots taken before 1945. Apart from the focus on Oceania, Africa and Indonesia, America, Australia, Asia, the polar regions and Europe are present in the collection as well. Expeditions are documented with an extensive series of publications. The archive is accessible for scientific purpose.

fotoarchive.org is an information platform of the association for historical photography and the state archives of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Land.

The Staatsarchiv Basel-Stadt (state archive of the canton of Basel-Stadt) contains a large collection of pictures and photographs documenting life in the city and canton of Basel. There are, however, also photographs taken by citizens of Basel during their travels in Africa.

The Fotostiftung Schweiz is in care of the archives and bequests of numerous photographers. Also, together with ProLitteris, it looks after their copyrights. The bequests consist of negatives, originals, copies, publications and documents. Some bequests, e.g. the legacy of Peter W. Häberlin, contain photographs taken in Africa. Some archives are already catalogued and have been presented in publications and exhibitions. Others have not or only partially been catalogued, but can be accessed for research. An electronic database is currently under construction.

The collection of the Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft (DGK, German colonial association) documents especially the German colonial activities, but also colonial developments on a general level. A extensive regional department looks at all regions where the German Reich had colonial interests. In Africa these regions are: Togo, Cameroon, Namibia, Tanzania, Ruanda, Burundi.

Main topics are explorations and expeditions, geology and mining, vegetationa and local agriculture, studies of nature and animals, local and white settlers, school and mission, traditional trade and transportation, the introduction of modern means of transportation (harbours, roads, railroads), economic development by Europeans, troops and riots.