We present the enhancement project of the founding nucleus of the Alinari Archives. This is represented by materials relating to the activities of the photographic establishment founded by the Alinari brothers in Florence in 1852, which is considered to be the oldest in the world. The heritage is of extreme relevance to the history, art and identity of Florence and Italy, as well as being of considerable interest to those studying the origins of photography.

For the first time, registers and documents relating to the company's activities, as well as Alinari equipment and the tools used in the factory's photographic production, were surveyed, described, restored and made available for consultation.

After being moved from their original location in Largo Alinari in Florence, these items were placed in the Art Defender vaults in Calenzano, where the enhancement project took place.

Survey and reorganization of the Alinari Company business records

An archival intervention was undertaken to survey, take a census of, and reorder the founding nucleus of the Alinari Company Archives. This nucleus was also conditioned with materials suitable for conservation.

This archive mostly consists of documents relating to the activities of the F.lli Alinari I.D.E.A company, which was established in 1921. Alongside the company's administrative and accounting records, the Secretarial Letter Copies series is particularly notable. Comprising 187,500 outgoing letter sheets bound in 375 registers alongside precious address books containing the names of correspondents, it provides an uninterrupted record of the company's history and the development of its extensive network from its foundation to 1971.

Even the balance sheet reports, with their introductions, are a peculiar source that illustrates the evolution of the activity in all its forms, as well as the accounting data of the financial year. Born artistic and artisanal, the activity became increasingly governed by corporate logics.

Unfortunately, the documentation produced before the establishment of the F.lli Alinari I.D.E.A company, i.e. during the long period from Alinari's beginnings in 1854 to 1920, is missing. However, a small documentary collection from the Alinari family (1856–2003) partially fills this gap. Described in the database as an "aggregated section", it consists of company documents, titles, diplomas and honours awarded to the company over time, as well as a series of more personal papers.

The other aggregated section is represented by the Domenico Anderson photographic studio (established in Rome in 1877). This section is mainly administrative and accounting in nature, and documents the company from 1928 to 1968, until its final incorporation into Fratelli Alinari I.D.E.A.

The entire company archive, including aggregated collections, consists of 954 units, including registers, envelopes, files, inserts and binders, and covers the time span 1856-2003.

This valuable resource is now available to scholars, researchers, and citizens wishing to further their studies and research into the history and production of this important Florentine establishment.

The description of the data is now available in the dedicated section, making this valuable documentary complex accessible and searchable.

This study completed the Alinari census project: another study, started in March 2022 and concluded in April 2023, took into consideration documents relating to acquisitions from 1982 to 2019. At the time, it had not been possible to consult the pre-1982 company archive documentation, which is now the subject of this project.

Manuscript registers

There are 41 handwritten registers documenting the photographic production of the establishment, which consist of plate negatives in various formats and photographs taken for commercial purposes and studio portraits of personalities from 1854 onwards, as well as production for public and private commissions from 1893 onwards.

These are valuable tools for studying and reconstructing the work of the Fratelli Alinari. To prevent further deterioration and make them accessible, it was necessary to conduct conservation checks on the entire repertoire and restore the two manuscript registers of the plates library. These registers contain the numerical and nominative indexes of Alinari's private commissions from 1893 onwards and are a valuable source of information on the social history of Florence and Italy.

These two volumes had long been in use by Alinari staff and were in a precarious state of preservation. The restoration has been authorised by the Archival and Bibliographic Superintendency of Tuscany. In addition to a photographic campaign, the registers were restored to full usability through operations such as cleaning, dismantling the stitching and recovering the original ribbons.

This enabled them to be acquired safely as part of the cultural heritage digitisation project promoted by the Tuscany Region within the PNRR.

Objects and lenses

The vast collection of objects, including photographic and historical studio equipment (such as backdrops and studio furniture), as well as viewers, originated not only from the activities of the Alinari Establishment, but also from acquisitions made by the previous owner from other sources. The collection arrived at the Art Defender's depot neither organised nor catalogued.

Thanks to this project, the Fondazione Alinari was able to conduct for the first time a survey of these instruments and carry out preventive conservation activities. This made it possible to identify the Fratelli Alinari instruments, particularly a collection of 85 rare and precious lenses — extraordinary objects, most of which were contained in their original cases.

Examples include three 'Voigtländer & Sohn' large-format, long-focus lenses (1875–1880), two landscape lenses by Lerebours et Secretan, and a series of J. H. Dallmeyer lenses dating back to the origins of photography. These materials were photographed and catalogued in preparation for a more in-depth study.

Fratelli Alinari. From lenses to photographs

Watch the recording of the meeting "Fratelli Alinari: Dagli obiettivi alle fotografie", presented by Anna Giatti and Corrado D'Agostini as part of the Fondazione Alinari's 2024 initiative "Notizie dagli Archivi". The presentation explains the work on the furniture and on the photographic equipment of the Alinari atelier.