Archiving is now a different world from the pioneering work of Miss Maude Davies.

The forward-thinking Miss Davies was our cataloguing trailblazer when picture librarian of The Times from 1921-41.

From those humble beginnings, we now have a veritable treasure trove of photographs, negatives, cuttings and bound paper volumes at our vast archive based at Bow in east London.

Located on a business park, the archive unveils a vast array of historic gems in a mass of neatly-ordered boxes.

Steve Baker, a company stalwart with 31 years service, heads up the Bow team as picture and information services manager in Content Operations.

We got the archive tour from picture librarian and content specialist Michael-John Jennings – a man who clearly loves his work.

While current content is firmly locked in to the digital world, a wander around the 14,000 sq ft storage area reveals an untold volume of archive gems.

There are in excess of 50million negatives for a start, spanning more than a century. Add to that more than 25million hard copy photographs, bound volumes of our titles from the 1780s to the current day and cuttings from the 1940s to 2008 – all in all, an unrivalled historic resource.

As MJ said:

“It's an incredible collection. Visitors are blown away by it.”

The main archive users are Editorial and Syndication. The seven-day archive operation needs to respond immediately with a quick scan if, for example, The Times needs an old picture just before deadline or provide an iconic image that Syndication has sold to a customer.

MJ, who painstakingly restored glass plate negs of the 1948 London Olympics for coverage ahead of the 2012 Games in the capital, recalled uncovering tucked-away photographs of British athlete Roger Bannister becoming the first person to run a sub four-minute mile at Oxford in 1954.

He said:

“The photographs were taken to Bannister, who hadn’t seen them before and he was thrilled. It made a great spread in The Times.”

An example of the archive’s commercial value featured one of our pictures of boxing legend Muhammad Ali, taken in 1966, being bought by men’s clothing online site Mr Porter to illustrate iconic fashion.

The archive also embraces social media with a Twitter feed and a blog. Now would Miss Davies approve?