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Walter Diggelmann repairs a tyre on the Tour de Suisse, 1950. ©Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum

The opening of the Gotthard Road Tunnel, September 5, 1980. ©Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum

Protesting against the planned nuclear power plant at Kaiseraugst, canton Aargau, 1985. ©Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum

Reading - and smoking - in a train's restaurant carriage, around 1940. ©Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum

A derailed train on the Lötschberg line, 1978. ©Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum

Transporting wood and stone on Lake Lugano, 1940. ©Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum

Taking it easy on a Lake Maggiore cruise, 1947. ©Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum

Jakob "Köbi" Kuhn, former Swiss footballer and coach of the national team 2001-2008. This picture was taken in 1976. ©Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum

Miss Switzerland Renate Walther, 1986. ©Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum

Italian guest workers on arrival in Brig, canton Valais, 1956. ©Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum

Charlie Chaplin in Corsier-sur-Vevey around 1964. He lived there between 1953 and 1977 and was buried in the cemetery. ©Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum

Voting in Glarus in 1941. ©Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum

Soviet dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn arriving in Zurich on February 15, 1974. He spent the first two years of his exile in Switzerland. ©Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum

An alarming-looking swimming lesson in Wollishofen, Zurich, in 1943. ©Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum

The successful Swiss skiing team at the 1987 World Ski Championships, held in the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana. Switzerland dominated the event, winning eight of ten gold medals, including an all-Swiss podium in the downhill. ©Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum

The open drugs scene at the former Letten railway station in Zurich just before it was shut down, 1995. ©Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum

Satirical street theatre of the youth movement in Zurich, 1980. ©Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum

Two brothers at the port on the River Rhine in Basel, around 1939. ©Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum

The frozen Lake Biel, 1941. ©Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum

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The development of Swiss press photography since 1940.

For the first time, the Swiss National Museum in Zurich is displaying its extensive press photo archive. The exhibition shows recent Swiss history from the point of view of press photographers and sheds light on how press photography developed in the second half of the 20th century into modern day photojournalism.

Since the museum’s photo collection has focused until now on private photographs, these images are an ideal complement.