Historical photo archives or collections can put an organization on the map and make it into a destination for patrons. Conversely, if not well organize and indexed, collections and archives can languish in obscurity and occupy valuable space and resources with no tangible return for the organizations. The Milwaukee Public Library's Historic Photo Archives contain around thirty thousand historic images; of those images, most are located in the Historic Photo Collection, on of the archives' 45 individual collections. The Historic Photo Archives has evolved over the decades. Various reference librarians have been assigned to the archives, and the rotation of responsible parties has left its mark. The challenge created by having many individuals with different backgrounds, priorities, areas of interest, and time to devote to the maintenance of the collection has been mitigated by a strong collection development policy.