16 404 units. In addition to the collection of photographs the department contains more than 16000 photomechanical prints — landscapes, genre scenes and portraits and printed albums of the late 1870-ies-1960-ies. This collection is devoted to the countries of Western and Eastern Europe, USA and East Asian regions and widely presents not only cities, but also life and culture of different countries and peoples. Among the phototypists, whose works are in the department, there are such names as Shevoyon and Dufu, W. I. Stein, M. Schroeder, M. Gubler, A. Salon. The publishing houses, involved in the development and production of photomechanical prints, such as "Scherer, Nabgolts and Co", "Lowman and Hanford", "Photochrom Zürich" (later "Photoglob Zürich AG), publishing house of Ernst Wasmuth and many others are presented in the department . Among the techniques, used in this collection, phototypes and relief prints, semitone dominate . But there are also more rare techniques such as photogravure, which is not inferior to photo in quality of reproduction of details and light-shadowed images, as well as photochromolithography, better known as photochrom. With this technique the color photography has begun in the XIX century.
