Photographers Willem and Lubèrt Niestadt were the best-known (press) photographers in the region of Schagen (North-Holland) in the period from 1940 to 1980. They were born in St. Maartensbrug (municipality of Zijpe), where their ancestor Gerhardt Niestadt took up photography in 1862.

Willem and Lubèrt ran their studio in Schagen, on the Gedempte Gracht. They also took photographs around the region for the local newspaper Schager Courant, documenting general human, economic, political, governmental and sports activities.

In late 1983 their company building suffered serious water damage due to a fire in the neighbouring building. The material that was hastily removed from the photo studio included ten garbage bags full of negatives that came into the possession of the Zijpe Museum in 1998. The approximately 90,000 negatives were cleaned, after which nearly 81,000 of them proved to be usable. The photographs have been digitised and are currently being described. The Memory presents a selection of 4000 photographs.