This volume, written by historians and specialists in the history of photography, opens up a unique collection of photographs: the resource constituted by the Historical Archive of the firm of Friedrich Krupp in Essen. It affords an inside view of the company up to the outbreak of World War I, while at the same time being an excellent example of the use of the medium of photography as a historical source. The almost unbroken photographic documentation is due first and foremost to the great interest taken in photographic records by Alfred Krupp, one of the firm's pioneers. Other contributions are devoted to the faces of the workforce and photography as a source for the history of labour and technology, Krupp family life outside the factory gates, and relations between the town of Essen and the Krupp factories.