The diverse photographic collections depict fashion trends, architectural styles, famous people, celebrations of life and memorials of tragedy. There are well over 5000 individual photographs, slides and negatives in the Southern Maryland Studies Center's collections that provide us with a glimpse into Southern Maryland's past.

Images in the online catalog are restricted to original photographic materials. Duplicate images were excluded.

The General Photographic Collection is the most diverse collection. It consists of individual or very small groups of photographs donated by many different people. Among the different subjects found in this collection include politicians, families, towns, and businesses from 20th century.

The Cooksey-Jones Collection covers the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries and consists of sixteen photographs of members of the Cooksey, Jones, and Jenkins Families. Persons of interest include Thomas A. Jones and Ferdinand C. Cooksey.

The James C. Wilfong Collection consists of over 1000 individual photographs of Charles and St. Mary's Counties, Maryland in the photographic section of the collection. Subjects of interest include churches such as Old Durham Church; Trinity Church, Newport; and Christ Church, Chaptico; cemeteries and individual gravestone of famous people such as Thomas Stone, Dr. Gustavas Brown, and Governor Lionel Copley; historic houses including Araby, Cremona, Ocean Hall and West Hatton; trees, barns, and historic markers. The original arrangement, alphabetical by subject, created by Mr. Wilfong was retained.

The Stickley Photographic Collection documents the young life of Dunreath Posey Stickley. The collection includes photographs of the Posey family, Causine's Manor, the town of La Plata, Maryland, and students and faculty of The McDonough Institute, ca. 1926.

The Geraldine Hyde Williams Collection contains photographs of the Hyde and Burch families.