The Picture Archive of the Austrian National Library (Bildarchiv der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek) is part of the Austrian National Library (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek), which unites several historical libraries, four museums and several special collections. The Picture Archive is the biggest centre of pictorial documentation in Austria. It combines three important historical collections: the Department of Portraits, the Picture Archive and the royal family’s library. The catalogue, from which pictures can be ordered, are available online.

The origin of the collection is the former ‘royal and imperial family Fidei Commis Library’ of the House of Habsburg, a comprehensive collection of portraits, graphics, books, historic photographs and valuable art objects. The Picture Archives contain over 1 million photographic negatives, covering a wide spectrum of subjects: from portraits, photographs of architecture, historic documents and pictures of everyday life to artistic photographs.

The Archive’s main areas of focus:

- Habsburgica: Emperor Franz Joseph, Empress Elisabeth, and other members of the imperial family

- Topographic and architectural photography. The main focus is Austria, with abundant and detailed material on Vienna and a large collection of picture postcards.
- Contemporary history: e.g., the photo archives of Wiener Kurier (the newspaper Vienna Courier)
- Portrait photography: politicians, artists, business people, sportspeople, and scientists
- Theatre photography: Salzburg Festivals, Viennese theatres, etc.

The Special Collections comprise several photographers’ archives like those of:
- Harry Weber: News photography from the period 1950 – 1975, with a focus on Austrian political events such as the state treaty, consequences of the uprising in Hungary; theatre photography, particularly Salzburg Festivals, state opera; photographs of contemporary Jewry in Vienna 

- Franz Linschinger: News photography, such as the opening up of the border by Hungary in 1989 and portrait photography of artists

- Kurt Aigner: News photography of Upper Austria from 1954 to about 1987. The collection contains about 20 years of the photographic archives of the newspaper Oberösterreichischen Nachrichten (Upper Austrian News)


The online archive is available here .