Derby's WW Winter opened in 1867 in the same Midland Street building it occupies today.
Large glass plate negatives from the late 19th to the early 20th Century, which go on show next week, offer rare glimpses of Derbyshire, including German prisoners of war held there during World War One.
The prisoners - mostly officers - were held from 1915 to 1918 at Donington Hall on the Leicestershire border, where they formed sports teams.
There will be other pictures of Derbyshire in wartime on display, including these shots of British soldiers at Derbyshire barracks.
WW Winter's studio was photographer by Royal Appointment to King Edward VII and there are a number of negatives of the monarch in the archive.
The studio has become the first business in the East Midlands to receive a Heritage Lottery grant, after the National Lottery recently allowed private firms to apply.
It has been granted Â£51,800 to employ an archivist to start preserving and cataloguing its archive of glass negatives.
"We know there is a vast collection of photographs of Derby residents and city scenes but within our day-to-day operations we do not have the resources to work with the collection and thus, until now, it has sat dusty in the cellar unseen," said photographer Louisa Fuller.
She said the funding is an "exciting opportunity" to digitise the archive and make it publicly accessible.
Pictures of Derby's cricket pavilion and a team shot of Derby County players from 1888 are also included in the collection.
The photographs are on display from September 11 to 13.
One of the UK's oldest photography studios is set to display part of its "vast" historic archive to the public for the first time.