The Photographic Archive of Fairfax County, Virginia - The General Collection (Index)
The Photographic Archive of Fairfax County, Virginia includes more than 13,000 images of the people places and events of Fairfax County.
The Photographic Archive of Fairfax County, Virginia - The Slide Collection (Index)
This collection contains 2,660 color and black and white photographic slides spanning the years 1961-1998. Subjects consist of homes, churches, people, events, building exteriors and interiors, documents, portraits, and landscapes significant to Fairfax County’s history. The collection is the result of donations by various photographers, both private individuals and county departments, although very few have been identified.
Alexandria Gazette Photograph Collection (Index)
Photographs in this collection span the years 1953-1993, the bulk of which are from 1970-1986. The Alexandria Gazette newspaper used these photographs to accompany their news articles. Subjects include Fairfax County politicians, local residents, county officials, schools, churches, and other buildings and events in Alexandria, Mount Vernon, Groveton, and Fairfax.
Henry H. Douglas Slide Collection (Index)
The Henry H. Douglas Collection consists of 215 slides spanning the years 1968-1979 and depicts various historic scenes in Fairfax County, Virginia including Annandale, Bailey’s Crossroads, Burke, Centreville, Chantilly, Dranesville, Dunn Loring, Fairfax, Falls Church, Great Falls, McLean, Herndon, Lorton, Merrifield, Mount Vernon, Newington, Oakton, Reston, Springfield, Tysons Corner, and Vienna.
Dunn Loring, Virginia Survey Slide Collection (Index)
The Dunn Loring, Virginia Survey Slide Collection consists of 299 color photographic slides dating from 1988. Students from Martha Williams’ Junior history class at George C. Marshall High School conducted the survey. The slides feature houses, both contemporary and historic, in Dunn Loring, Virginia.
Clarence DeVaughn Ellington Photograph Collection on Ravensworth Farm (Index)
The Ellington Collection consists of 15 mounted photographic prints, 2 photographs, and 58 negatives taken in 1956 of the Ravensworth Farm formerly located between Annandale and Springfield, Virginia and currently the site of Ravensworth Shopping Center, Ravensworth Industrial Park, and the Ravensworth Farm subdivision. Subjects include images of buildings located on Ravensworth Farm, as well as unrelated images of the C&O Canal, George Washington Memorial Parkway, and pier remnants of the Aqueduct Bridge in Georgetown. A few negatives are unidentified.
Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce Slide Collection (Index)
The Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce Slide Collection consists of 131 color slides from 1969 and features images of businesses, airports, county buildings, colleges, roads, and aerials.
Fairfax County Office of Comprehensive Planning Heritage Resources Branch Slide Collection (Index)
Contains 940 slides depicting mostly historic Fairfax County structures spanning the years 1967-1993. Staff at the Fairfax County Heritage Resources Department photographed sites in Accotink, Alexandria, Annandale, Burke, Centreville, Chantilly, Clifton, Dranesville, Dulles, Fairfax, Fairfax Station, Falls Church, Floris, Fort Belvoir, Great Falls, Groveton, Gum Springs, Herndon, Idylwood, Langley, Lewinsville, Lorton, McLean, Mount Vernon, Newington, Reston, Seven Corners, Tysons Corner, and Vienna. Some slides in this collection are duplicated slides which pre-date 1967. Images of historical documents and historic portraits are also included..
Fairfax County Office of Public Affairs Photograph Collection (Index)
The Fairfax County Office of Public Affairs Photograph Collection consists of 44 boxes containing millions of images spanning the years 1962-2009. Formats include 4x5 sheet film; 35mm negative film; 120 negative film; slides, contact sheets; photographic prints; and CD-ROMs. Throughout the division’s history, the Office of Public Affairs (OPA) built a photo archive documenting county government events, meetings, ceremonies, people, places, and buildings. .
Carole L. Herrick Photograph Collection (Index)
Contains 302 photographs of the McLean and Great Falls area from the years 2006-2012.
Helen Snow Jones Photo Album on “Edgecombe” (McLean, Va.) (Index)
This photo album consists of 39 pages of photographs of Jones' Edgecombe estate located in McLean, Virginia and spans the years 1932-1933. Photographs depict various scenes on the Edgecombe estate; Merrywood; Little Gables; the Potomac River; automobiles; horses; and a peach orchard on Chain Bridge Road. Individuals pictured include Edgecomb Lee Jones; George A. Southall; Evelyn Southall; Annie Southall; the Noyes family; Mickey the dog; and other unidentified individuals.
Historical Slide Tour of Fairfax City, Virginia (Index)
The Historical Slide Tour of Fairfax City consists of 44 color photographic slides dating from 1976. They depict various buildings, structures, and other historic sites in Fairfax City, Virginia. The slideshow was produced by the 1976-1977 Arts Department of the Junior Woman’s Club of Fairfax County.
Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District Photograph Collection (Index)
The NVSWCD Collection contains 141 photographs and six negatives from 1962-1971. The images were photographed by the District to increase public understanding of the conservation needs and problems in Fairfax County. They depict a quickly developing county suffering from erosion and other environmental problems, and conservation efforts to combat them. Locations featured include Annandale, Burke, Centreville, Chantilly, Fairfax, Falls Church, McLean, Seven Corners, Springfield, Tysons Corner, and Vienna, VA.
Quentin R. Porter Collection (Index)
Quentin R. Porter (1918-1982) operated Porter Studios on Broad Street in Falls Church, Virginia from the 1940s-1970s. He photographed a variety of Northern Virginia scenes including businesses, events, car accidents, passport photos, clubs, schools and more. This collection consists of over 66,000 negatives that Porter took when he operated his business from 1943-1977..
James and Albertine Pullman Photograph Collection (Index)
The Pullman collection spans the years c.1902 to 1972 and depict scenes on the Pullman’s family farm, “Valley Farm”, located on Route 1 on the border of Fairfax County and Alexandria near the Great Hunting Creek, as well as photos of the Pullman, Ross, Webster, and Spence families.
Reston Times Photograph Collection (Index)
The Reston Times Photograph Collection consists of 25 boxes of photographs and negatives covering the geographic area of Reston, Herndon, Chantilly, Centreville, Clifton, and Vienna, Virginia from the years 1971 through 1992. The files contain newspaper clippings, photographs, and approximately 200,000 35mm negatives. The photographs are arranged in subject order.
Ruth and Wayne Hill Slide Collection (Index)
The Wayne and Ruth Hill Slide Collection contains over 1,300 photographic slides spanning the years 1946-1988, the bulk of which is 1984-1987, and depict scenes of Fairfax County, Virginia. Subjects include Fairfax County buildings, churches, historic sites, roads, businesses and schools in Burke, Centreville, Chantilly, Clifton, Dunn Loring, Fairfax, Great Falls, Herndon, Mason Neck, McLean, Merrifield, Reston, Tysons Corner and Vienna.
Stuntz Collection on Rambler Photographs (Index)
The Stuntz Collection of Rambler Photographs consists of 485 print photographs dating from 1900-1922 and taken in Virginia by J. Harry Shannon for “The Rambler” column which ran in the Washington Evening Star newspaper from 1912 to 1928. The prints were made from the original negatives which are stored off-site. Descriptions of each image are in J. Harry Shannon’s own words, and the negatives are arranged numerically according to Shannon’s numbering system. The subjects vary from the famous to the mundane, including old houses, cemeteries, roads, public buildings, and battlefields. Counties and cities in Virginia include Alexandria, Appomattox, Arlington, Caroline, Fairfax, Fredericksburg, Harrisonburg, Loudoun, Prince William, Spotsylvania, Stafford, Warren, Westmoreland, York, and Jefferson County, WV.
Wayne Hill Stereoview Collection (Index)
The Wayne Hill Stereoview Collection consists of 71 stereoviews depicting scenes throughout Virginia including Fairfax County. The collection spans the years 1871-1909, although many are undated and some depict images from the Civil War era. Wayne Hill, a local photographer, collected and owned these stereoviews.
Western Fairfax County Survey Photograph Collection (Index)
Consists of 35mm negatives featuring 1,516 images dating from 1976-1986. The bulk of the images were photographed during the 1985 grant-funded survey of the western area of Fairfax County and were published in a report co-authored by grant staff Betsy Chittenden and Andrea Heintzelman. Several negatives in this collection both pre-date and post date the survey project. Images depict farms, barns, houses, schools, churches and other historic structures in the Chantilly area of Fairfax County, Virginia. Many of these sites no longer exist and have been overtaken by development.
William J. Moore Slide Collection (Index)
The William J. Moore Slide Collection contains 82 slides spanning the years 1955-1976 and depict scenes in Baileys Crossroads, Falls Church, Great Falls, Hybla Valley, and Reston, Virginia. Subjects include Bailey’s Crossroads during the Blizzard of 1966; Columbia View Apartments; Colvin Run Mill; Lake Anne Village Center in Reston; National Memorial Park in Falls Church; and St. Louis Catholic Church in Alexandria. Also of note are slides of the Spring Hill Motor Lodge, an unusual example of Mid-century modern architecture designed by architect William L. Mayne (AIA). The motor lodge was located at 5666 Columbia Pike and operated in later years as the Econo-Lodge Pentagon before demolition in 2007.
The library presents two digitized photograph collections in cooperation with the Library of Virginia. They represent a small portion of the Virginia Room's collection of thousands of photographs.
Fairfax County Public Library Historical Photographs
These digitized images depict everyday life over a good part of the late 19th and most of the 20th centuries. The photographs and postcard images cover activities and events from all across the county.
Fairfax County Public Library Photograph Collection
Pictures from the Henry H. Douglas Collection of Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Photographs, and the Fairfax County Extension Service Annual Reports issued between 1922 and 1948 can be found by searching "Fairfax County Public Library" in the LVA Collections Discovery System.
Scan Requests
The Virginia Room offers digital reproductions of photographs in our collection. Library staff can scan images for a fee with the submission of a photo order. Patrons are not permitted to scan images.
Photos can be scanned and sent via e-mail or picked up on a CD ($1.00 extra charge). Scan requests are free for the first 10 images, but each additional photo is $8.00 each. To make a request, email a completed photo order form to: va_room@fairfaxcounty.gov
Photographs from the Virginia Room archives may not be scanned on the Memory Depot scanner.
Copyright and Publishing
The copyright status of photographs is often difficult to determine. Photographs in the Virginia Room may still be protected by copyright or trademark not owned by FCPL. We have not determined copyright status for many of the photographs in our collection, although ownership of copyright by FCPL and public domain status is noted if known. It is the sole responsibility of the applicant to determine whether any such rights exist, and to obtain necessary permission if using images in a publication.
