The Crimean War took place between 1853 and 1856 on the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea and pitted the Russian Empire against an alliance of Ottoman, British, French, and Sardinian forces. One collection is available due to the difficulty of using photography to document a war at that time.
British photographer Roger Fenton traveled to Crimea at the behest of publisher Thomas Agnew and Sons in 1855 to document the Crimean War. Fenton’s photos show soldiers, camps, and landscapes. His photographs are considered the first comprehensive effort to photographically document a war.
All 263 of Roger Fenton's Crimean War photographs are digitized and available through the online catalog. There are no copyright restrictions on the photographs.
