This collection contains more than 200 unique photographs of the Uprising and related further events. They are one of the oldest and historically valuable exhibits of all the collections in the Photography museum.

The photographs depict families and youth before the Uprising and insurgents in exile. There are also pictures of the Uprising itself, which is evident from the uniforms worn by the insurgents.

Photography was the means of preserving the images of these historical events. Loss or separation was a very familiar part of life, thus it was important to take pictures that were left to the relatives and future generations.

The photographs show the leaders of the Uprising – Fathers Konstantinas Kalinauskas, Zigmantas Sierakauskas, Antanas Mackevičius, and Boleslovas Dluskis. These portraits were copied and distributed among the insurgents. Many who fought against the tsar’s army carried the portraits in their pockets (the carte de visite format became popular at the time, as it was very well-suited for this purpose). The portraits uplifted the fighting spirit.

Some of them were sent from the insurgents’ places of exile as memorabilia.

The photographs of insurgents were taken by various authors. A small part of these authors worked in the current area of Lithuania, but mostly in various towns of the Russian empire, where the insurgents of the 1863 Uprising were commonly exiled. Some pictures were taken by Polish and French photographers, who captured the images of people that emigrated after the Uprising or were not granted a permission to return home.