In this month’s blog post, we hear from Federica Beretta, the Royal Photographic Society Project Archivist, reporting on her progress unpacking and making sense of the documents, journals, correspondence and ephemera that make up the RPS Collection.
Telling the story of the RPS
The Royal Photographic Society Collection holds a unique place within the V&A: it is both a record of photographic practice and a material trace of the institutional structures that have shaped photography’s history in the UK and beyond.
Among the treasures contained within the Society’s archive are its earliest Council minutes from 1853; administrative records dating from the 1970s; correspondence spanning more than a century; publications produced by the Society; as well as documents and ephemera collected from photographers over time. Each record holds its own context, its own voice.
Structuring the Archive: integrating past and present
An archive is a place of discovery. A place of traces. A space where old and new can live together. Archives tell stories. But more importantly, they shape them.
The role of archives in society is deeply connected to memory and power. Archives influence what is remembered and what is forgotten. Through preservation, arrangement, and description, they allow certain narratives to survive and, inevitably, others to fade. In this sense, archives are not passive repositories. They are active participants in the construction of history.
The archivist’s task is not simply to preserve and store records, but to position them in relation to one another, creating a framework where layers of history can coexist, creating a structure that respects the integrity and provenance of documents while allowing them to speak to one another. Meaning does not emerge from isolated documents, it emerges from relationships. Without a strong structural foundation, archival interpretation cannot stand. Discourse cannot develop. Meaning cannot endure.
To foster this discourse, the RPS Archive must actively dialogue with the Society’s books, prints and equipment collections, stored respectively at the National Art Library and the Art, Architecture Photography & Design Department at the V&A – extraordinary resources for photographers, curators, students, and the wider community. Considered collectively, these materials tell a story of the development not only of the Royal Photographic Society, but of photography itself.
The RPS is a society that has evolved across time. It witnessed the social and technological transformations of the 19th and 20th centuries, survived two world wars, relocated multiple times and saw the emergence of photography as a distinct field of study with professional roles such as curators. It remains active today. The archive reflects both this continuity and this change.
Records of meetings and members
Among the first major bodies of archival material catalogued as part of the RPS Project are two substantial series of meeting minutes from the 19th century and the registers of past RPS Members, Associates and Fellows. To date, more than one hundred bound volumes, spanning a century have been organised, catalogued and rehoused.
These records capture the everyday workings of the organisation: the discussions, debates, proposals, and resolutions. They reveal how photographic practices were shaped not only by individuals, but also by committees, policies, and institutional frameworks.
From an archival perspective, this material presents both richness and complexity. The volumes vary in format, condition, and level of detail, and they often refer to other records (correspondence, reports, exhibitions, and acquisitions) that survive elsewhere in the Archive or in other parts of the collection.
At this stage of the project, the meeting minutes and the Members’ registers form a kind of backbone for the wider institutional archive. They provide a chronological and thematic framework that will inform how the rest of the records are organised and described.
As work continues on structuring the remaining material, these volumes act as reference points, helping to identify gaps, overlaps, and connections across the collection. But most importantly, these records are now fully accessible to scholars and the public – anyone curious to know more about the history of the Royal Photographic Society.
What’s next?
This early phase of the project has focused on laying the foundations upon which the RPS narrative can begin to unfold organically. It allows for records to be preserved with integrity and positioned to reveal their connections.
Cataloguing is often invisible work, but it shapes how collections (archives as well as museum objects) are discovered and understood. By bringing order and clarity to the institutional records, the project contributes to a broader understanding of the collection as a whole, one that recognises the significance of administrative documents alongside photographs and objects.
Because this is what archives are for: they allow stories to survive across time; they ensure that memory remains accessible; and they create the conditions under which history can continue to be told.
