[4] The collection traces the history of photography, from its beginnings in 1839 to the 1950s, and includes hundreds of thousands of Daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes,[5] carte de visites, and hand-colored photographs.

[13] Having written over 1,100 articles and over 40 books, the Burns Archive has published photographic historic texts[14] ranging from Victorian era funeral portraits to early oncology.

[18][19] Images from the Burns Archive have been a major source for various documentaries (Ken Burns, the History channel, PBS American Experience), television series (NBC’s Hannibal, HBO’s Autopsy, Travel Channel’s Mysteries at the Museum, Cinemax's The Knick), and feature films (The Silence of the Lambs, Gangs of New York, The Others), and has inspired artists from Joel Peter Witkin to makeup artists for Jacob's Ladder.

The Archive was instrumental in the recreation of turn-of-the-century medicine,[21] as Dr. Burns worked closely with production and the actors to make the hospital scenes realistic and authentic to the period.

[24] The Archive's extensive photographic record of medical history served as comprehensive resources for procedures[25] and became important references for everything from the antiseptic atomizers in the operating theater to an early X-ray machine, to the prosthetic worn by a recurring character.