The Geographical Society of London was founded in 1830 as an institution to promote the advancement of geographical science. Today, with 15,000 members, the Society is the largest and most active of the scholarly geographical societies. It advances geography through supporting geographical research, education and outdoor learning, public engagement and policy.
The Society’s Picture Library holds over half a million photographs, artworks, negatives, lantern slides and albums dating from around 1830 to the present. From our collections we can offer a hugely rich resource of imagery, from a ‘golden age’ of travel and exploration, to modern geographical and travel photography. Our historic images include images from the great Antarctic adventures of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton and to the pioneering journeys of DavidLivingstone, Samuel Baker, John Hanning Speke and Richard Burton.
