Many of the images have never been published or seen in public, while others were printed in Country Life only in the early 20th century. They comprise a remarkable record of glorious houses, their interiors and gardens across Britain and Europe. Many of the buildings photographed by the magazine are now lost for ever, such as the seventeenth-century Berkshire manor Coleshill House, demolished after a fire in 1952.
Others, such as Blenheim Palace, capture the ongoing splendour of grand English architecture.
The site also holds a wide range of striking contemporary images, from great British sporting occasions to glamorous contemporary social events, classic landscapes to rural entrepreneurship. Many of the images are available as high-quality prints to order.
Country Life Picture Library manager Justin Hobson says "Country Life has been at the heart of British rural life for over a century, renowned for the quality and range of its images, as well as unparalleled access to architecture and events. The archive contains breathtaking images of some of the greatest British country houses and gardens, as well as contemporary images of rural life."
"Until now we've only been able to offer a limited service to researchers, but the new site allows unprecedented access to our unique record of British life over the years".
The site has been created to meet the needs of picture researchers, with high-quality captions and a fully searchable database, as well as registration and lightboxes allowing researchers find and save images.
The Country Life archive is still being scanned, and new images will be added to the site every week, alongside freshly commissioned material. For those looking for pictures not included on the site, Justin and the picture library team offer a specialist research service, providing access to the vast archive still not online.
