Green Vintage Index Filing Cabinets

When it comes to caring for our collections, Imperial War Museums are continually working to house items in suitable conditions to ensure their long-term preservation. In this ongoing work we sometimes review historic storage which, whilst no longer suitable for collections, can be repurposed and rehomed.

These metal filing cabinets previously stored index cards for the “Q” series of photographs, enabling curators and researchers to track down images by theme or content before IWM’s collection was digitised.

The Q series was originally comprised of First World War British official photographs acquired during the conflict. The collection continued to grow over the following 25 years as additional First World War material was acquired, including official material produced by other nations as well as press photographs and photographs taken by private individuals such as soldiers and nurses. Almost all of this collection is now viewable on IWM Collections Online.

Although they are no longer needed for day-to-day use, the Q series index cards have been repacked into suitable archival boxes allowing these vintage and historic filing cabinets to find new uses and for their purchase to raise funds for the continued care of our collections.

Width: 35cm
Hight: 29cm
Depth: 50cm