The collection includes a part of the unique collection "Photography of the Polish countryside". The entire collection consists about four and a half thousand photos. They were sent in 1983 to a competition entitled "Photography of Polish countryside until 1948", organized by editors of the "Nowa Wieś" (New Village) weekly and the "Fotografia" (Photography) quarterly with participations of the Polish Historical Society and the Association of Polish Art Photographers. Due to the great social and scientific value of this collection, duplicate photos were sent to the Department of Ethnography of the Institute of Material Culture of the Polish Academy of Sciences ( now the Department of Contemporary Ethnology and Anthropology of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw). These photos are a valuable source material comprising an authentic photographic documentation illustrating a history of the Polish countryside from the 1860s to the end of the 1940s. The topics featured in these photos concern many areas of social life over several decades and changing political systems. Among the more extensive sets of collections, there are those relating to intergenerational relations, rural education, scenes of agricultural work, ethnic relations, the activation of women, social activity and local organizations, folk religiosity, the education and socialization of children, as well as contemporary fashion and aesthetic canons. Due to copyright requirements, the collection is only available on computers at the IAE PAS Library.