The collection offers extensive photographic material on the history of the former mission territories of the Rhenish and Bethel Missions and on the history of photography. The photographic documents document the history from the perspective of the mission and in this way supplement corresponding historical source material of other origins from other research institutions.

In particular, the collection includes photographic material from the regions to which the missionary sisters and missionaries were sent. These include southern and eastern Africa, Indonesia, southern China and Oceania.

In order to ensure a modern form of working with the collection in the future, the digitisation of the entire collection is currently in progress