The Haweis family photographs consist of over 1,250 black and white photoprints and negatives contained in albums, portfolios, diaries, and individual items. They cover two main subject areas: the life and times of Reverend Hugh R. Haweis and his wife, Mary Eliza Haweis, and the lives of their children, Lionel, predominantly and Hugolin and Stephen. The earlier photographs, dating back to the 1860s and 1870s, consist mainly of professional portraits of family and friends and travel views of England, Germany and Italy. Most of the photographs in this period are albumen carte-de-visites and cabinet cards. The pictures dating from the turn of the century to the 1940s revolve around Lionel's interests and those of his daughter Renee. In addition, there are professionally taken photographs by Lionel and Hugolin of friends and family and landscapes, art photographs by Lionel, and snapshots of friends.

The four albums of photographs in the H.R. and M.E.J. Haweis series will be of particular interest to social historians and those interested in the history of photography as they exemplify the social conventions of the time and the conventions in picture-taking of the second half of the nineteenth century. There are also many examples of early photographic processes. Researchers of art photography should look at the Portrait and View Portfolio in the Lionel Haweis Family sub-series, as well as his portraits of his daughter. This latter also contains 60 glass plate negative views of Stanley Park, 1912 (Boxes 17-19), which will be helpful to researchers of early Vancouver views. These photographs from Lionel Haweis' Rosetti Studios have been digitized and are available for viewing online.

The photographs in this collection have been arranged into four sub-series according to the name of the creator/collector of the pictures. This mirrors the arrangement of the manuscript materials in the Haweis family papers that have already been processed and relate the photographs to the family member and their papers which the photographs amplify and, in some cases, illustrate. The first sub-series, H.R. and M.E.J. Haweis cover 1860-1900. The photos concern all the family members, including the grandparents and the children, Lionel, Hugolin and Stephen Haweis, before the turn of the century. The second sub-series, Lionel Haweis' family, includes all those photographs taken and collected by Lionel and his daughter, Renee, between 1900 and 1940. The third and fourth sub-series, Hugolin Haweis and Stephen Haweis, which are small series, contain photographs between 1890 and 1940.