The Yale University Bands (Yale Concert Band, Yale Jazz Ensemble, and Yale Precision Marching Band) have a long history of performing music on campus, regionally, nationally, and abroad; at University functions, at football game halftime shows; and at every other type of musical event imaginable. The first evidence of a band on Yale's campus goes back to 1918.

Photographs, mostly black-and-white and chromogenic prints with some digital images, document the many thousands of performances by these three groups, mostly from around 1950 to the present. Most images are from tours and performances. Concert Band and Jazz Ensemble images are typically either tourist photographs or photographs of concerts. Marching Band photographs typically feature members at rehearsals for half-time shows or performing at special events (there are not many images of shows). Most of our photographs feature the Concert Band and the Marching Band.

Although some professional pictures of the full ensembles exist, photographs are almost entirely taken by students, allowing for unique and behind-the-scenes images, providing a historical record of these ensembles, which is typically more involved than the images in press coverage.