This collection totals approximately 8,000 lantern slides and is the outcome of a long-standing institutional endeavour aimed at creating and consolidating a very important visual aid which would serve research and teaching purposes. The original nucleus of the collection dates back to 1908, at the very beginning of the BSR's activities. In 1909, the collection included “series to illustrate Roman Historical Reliefs (58), Roman Portraits (95), Sardinia (125), and the Sistine Chapel (33)”.

The lantern slides owned by the BSR were integrated thereafter by other numerous slides coming from private collections such as those of Thomas Ashby and Eugénie Sellers Strong, or acquired through purchases and other donations. The scope of assembling a lantern slides collection was to supplement and enrich the lectures offered by the institution, but over the years it became a source of documentation for scholars and students visiting the BSR. A significant section of the collection, ca. two-thirds, was inventoried in two different periods. In the early 1920s , approximately 2,800 slides were identified, stored in wooden drawers specifically designed for this purpose and catalogued. The original typewritten catalogue is entitled “Preliminary List of Lantern Slides” and is mostly concerned with ancient art, including the slides depicting ancient monuments both religious and civic, sculpture, architecture, mosaics, artefacts, archaeological excavations. It is divided into geographical sections: Rome, the Roman Campagna, Italy Outside Rome, Europe exclusive of Italy, Asia, Africa, America.