Although Dutch monument photography didn’t become a seperate discipline until about 1910, monuments have been photographed since 1860. The occasional work of amateurs and photographers who were hired on location, was from 1908 onwards replaced by a more systematic photographic inventory of the national monument heritage.

More than 10,000 photographs illustrate the diversity in objects dealt with by monument conservation agencies between 1860 and 1947, and the varied ways in which these were photographed.