Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum founded in 1917 to record the story of the Great War. IWM’s remit was later expanded to include all military operations in which British or Commonwealth forces have been involved, from the First World War to contemporary conflicts.

IWM’s collections are an invaluable multi-media resource including photographs, film, art, documents, sound, and 3D objects that reveal the causes, course, and consequences of war, whether allied or enemy, service or civilian, military, or political, social, or cultural.

IWM is the official repository of the film and photographs shot by the British Army Film and Photographic Unit. Other notable collections exclusive to IWM include a significant amount of amateur film, the NATO film collection and the Tim Hetherington photo archive. IWM has delegated authority to administer and licence the re-use of Crown Copyright material.

Our IWM Film website provides research access to the film collection and is designed for the needs of commercial users, with free screener downloads and HD clip delivery.

IWM’s collections of over 11 million photographs, more than 30,000 sound recordings and world renown twentieth century British art which can be researched using IWM Collections.

IWM offers a Digitisation on Demand service.

Our Image & Film Licensing team includes experienced film curators with knowledge of our archive offline – please contact the team for assistance for your project.

All our net revenue goes to support IWM and its commitment to ensuring the collections are accessible online for future generations.