The graphic arts rooms hold four collections: drawings, prints, photographs and posters.
All together, a total of about 475,000 works are divided into four themes: history, topography, lifestyle and portraits.
This includes maps, views of Paris, architectural drawings, scenes of Parisian life, historical scenes, caricatures, as well as invoices and letterhead from Parisian boutiques and manufacturers. The photography collection, located within the graphic arts rooms, independently accounts for about 150,000 documents, with the oldest dating back to the invention of photography (1839). The richness of the collection is reflected in the variety of photographic mediums on display (daguerreotype, calotype, salt paper, albumin paper, photoglypty, black and white and colour photographs).
The collection includes some of the biggest names in the history of photography: Le Secq, Nadar, Marville, Baldus, Collard, Atget, Doisneau, Ilse Bing, Cartier-Bresson, Brassaï, etc.