In March 2024 the information about European archives has been placed on a subpage.
Archives are nowadays almost unthinkable without a website, online catalogues and increasingly also online finding aids and digital collections. However, even when using overviews and repertories it is not easy to get a good view of these collections. Digital image galleries often contain archival records only as one element among other digitized images. Selecting collections with relevance for legal history is not an easy matter, too. Sometimes archives participate in digital portals for the cultural heritage of a town, a region or a specific discipline, subject or theme. You might therefore find relevant information also on my general page for digital collections. Some archival collections are to be found in libraries, and thus you might want to look also at digital libraries. It will not surprise you this page with archives in some 110 countries shows gaps and omissions, but I try to present here at least to the best of my knowledge guides, overviews and portals. Ordening items by continents makes the gaps and the work to do clearer. As always comments, suggestions and alerts for broken links are most welcome!
For one particular subject I have tried elsewhere to provide a fair selection of digital collections. Digital projects for and by archives concerning the First World War can be found at my blog Digital 1418. Some projects with sources for and problems in legal history are in a phase of crowdsourcing projects in which the general public is invited to join scholars in transcribing or indexing resources. On the page about palaeography of my site I have listed a number of major platforms for these projects.
On purpose I open here with an overview of existing archives, portal sites and online finding aids, to make you aware of the fact that digital archival collections form only a fraction of the materials kept in archives, preserved, described, put in order and catalogued by archivists. Describing or restoring the order of an archival collection, its contents and context necessarily comes before digitization. Some of the general overviews are very detailed. Some of the best classic overviews online do not longer exist, except for archived versions.
The second section brings you to digitized archival collections. This page might be nothing but just a stepping stone towards a Digital Archives Register, be it on a national, international or thematic level, but without such efforts you cannot start contemplating such enterprises. Having seen some initiatives without clear indication of the URL’s for the end results is another consideration that has convinced me to create at least this page. I have decided not to include here licensed digital archival collections, they are easily found using research guides provided by libraries. I try to point also to portals where several archives together publish digital collections around a particular subject.
It is good to be aware of the differences in archival terminology. I use often the word archives for the institutions which hold archival records, and also for archival collections with files stemming from one source, thus forming a fonds as the French would say. I use finding aid and inventory as synonyms. In Dutch the word archief can stand for both the institution and a particular archival collection. In American usage the term manuscript collection can refer to archival records. You can learn much in this respect from the Multilingual Archival Terminology created by the International Council of Archives. At the end of this page you will find a section with some links for standards, terminology, archival societies and their journals.
In view of the sheer mass of web links and the difficulty to organize it in a list I created a searchable Zotero version with currently entries for general and world institutions, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and also the Pacific region. With tags and combinations of tags you can quickly perform searches and create your own selections.
As a sequel to the aforementioned step to clarify the overview given here European archives are presented since March 2024 on a separate subpage.
General organizations
- International Council on Archives (ICA) – the international organisation for and of archivists and archives, with regional branches, standards and guidelines, and working committees for several aspects, for example parliamentary archives and archives of political parties (SPP)
- UNESCO Archives Portal – alas this useful portal is not maintained anymore
- Open GLAM – an international platform aiming at an overview of digital collections of galleries, archives, libraries and museums
- International Association of Labour History Institutions (IALHI)
- FIAF Members, International Federation of Film Archives
- Links, International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) – a searchable database of many relevant institutions worldwide
- Worldwide Diplomatic Archives Index, Office of the Historian – an overview of national diplomatic archives
Archives worldwide: Overviews and portals
– in alphabetical order for countries
General overviews
- ArchiveGrid, OCLC – the archives portal of the firm known for its WorldCat library portal, with already many thousand institutions and their collections, mostly at collection level, but sometimes not, which can cause confusion, as does the presence of single manuscripts
- Archive im Internet, Archivschule Marburg – a generous overview of archives worldwide and many links; interface German and English – alas only an archived capture from 2019
- Repositories of Primary Sources, Terry Abraham, University of Idaho – Internet Archive – this wide ranging overview is no longer maintained since 2015, but the archived version can still be helpful
- AHA Archives Wiki – Internet Archive – a very helpful website of the American Historical Association, with also directories for countries not covered in it, since January 2018 discontinued
- Archiefnet, Historisch Centrum Overijssel, Zwolle – until 2016 this website offered a succinct guide to Dutch and Belgian archives and national archives worldwide, with additional links; interface Dutch and English; version January 2015, Internet Archive
- Find an archive, The National Archives, Kew – with apart from archives and archival repositories in the United Kingdom also a choice of institutions worldwide with holdings concerning the British isles
- Search portal, International Institute for Social History (IISH), Amsterdam – for searching in well over 900 archival collections at the IISH concerning many countries
- Virtual Library Labour History: Archives and Libraries, IISH
- Virtual Library Women’s History: Archives and Libraries, IISH
- Feminist and Women’s Libraries and Archives Network (FLA) – with an overview of UK institutions and also international examples
- Social Networks and Archival Context – a combination of biographies, networks and information about relevant archival collections, focusing on their creators
- Archives and Archival Resources, Hesburgh Libraries, Notre Dame University – a concise guide, with also information about oral history resources and palaeography
- Fresh from the archives, Dissertation Reviews – concise contributions about research visits to archives and libraries worldwide, both to famous and to less well-known institutions
- Hazine: A guide to researching the Middle East and beyond – a blog with portraits of a selection of archives, libraries and museums in Europe, Asia and the Middle East
- Local Archives and Libraries Directory, Digital Library for International Research (DLIR) – an overview with some 600 institutions in 15 countries, mainly in Asia
- Library Research Guide for Finding Manuscripts and Archival Collections, Harvard University Library – with much attention to archives in the USA, especially the Boston area, and for a number of European countries including the United Kingdom
Worldwide
- Archives and Records Management, United Nations
- UN Archives Geneva, United Nations
- League of Nations Archives, United Nations, Geneva – to be used with the League of Nations Statistical and Disarmament Documents (Northwestern University) and a fine research guide of the Peace Palace Library, The Hague
- Portail Internationale Archivistique Francophone (PIAF) – a portal for Francophone archives worldwide, created by the Association Internationale des Archives Francophones (AIAF)
- International Institute for Archival Science of Trieste and Maribor (IIAS) – founded in 1986, in particular known for its initiative for the yearly International Archives Day (June 8)
- National Security Archive, George Washington University – with projects for Russia, countries in Latin America and Asia, and for themes such as nuclear proliferation, genocide, environmental diplomacy and a torture archive
- ICRC Archives, International Committee of the Red Cross – interface English, French and Spanish
- TANAP Net: Dutch East India Company Archives and Research – a portal with archives in The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Indonesia and Sri Lanka; archived version, 2018, a new version is under construction
- Archives and Libraries, Transatlantischer Blick / Transatlantic Perspectives – an online guide to collections concerning migration
- Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, Lisbon – an archive with collections for the overseas history of the Portuguese colonial empire
- Colonialcorpus: Histoire de la justice coloniale et du droit colonial – on this portal for mainly French colonial history you can find a number of online finding aids and some databases
- Diasporic Literary Archives – an international network for tracing literary archives
- World-Wide Directory of Repositories holding Archives of Literature & Art, Section on Literary and Artistic Archives (SLA), ICA
- Guide to Archives of International Organizations, UNESCO and ICA – interface English and French
- World Bank Group Archives, Washington, DC
USA and United Kingdom
- ArchiveFinder, Chadwyck – a licensed database combining ArchivesUSA and NIDS UK/Ireland; luckily there is a successor to the British National Archives Register and similar websites, see below
Continents and countries in alphabetical order:
Africa
- African Libraries and Archives, Stanford Libraries – a good attempt at a complete overview of archives and libraries in Africa
- Africana Library Catalogs & Archives, Columbia University Libraries
- Archives de l’Afrique Équatoriale Française (Brazzaville) – archives concerning Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, Central Africa and Tchad
- Regional Branch for Central Africa (CENARBICA), ICA – alas with only a few links
- West African Regional Branch (WARBICA), ICA – with a number of links
- Cooperative Africana Materials Project, Center for Research Libraries, Chicago – interface English, French, Portuguese and Swahili
Benin
- Archives nationales du Bénin, Ouando
Cabo Verde
Côte d’Ivoire
- Archives coloniales d’Abidjan, série EE: Affaires politiques – online inventories of two record series (EE and RR)
Egypt
- Dar-el-Kotob (House of Books) / Dar-al-Wathaiq al-Qawmiyya, Cairo – the Egyptian national archives and national library
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Ghana
- Public Records and Archives Administration Department, Accra – the state archive service
Kenya
- Kenyan National Archives and Documentation Service, Nairobi
- Kenya National Archives Guide, Syracuse University
Madagascar
- Foiben’ny Arisivam-Pirenena [Direction des archives nationales], Antananarivo
Malawi
- National Archives of Malawi, Zomba
Morocco
- Archives du Maroc, Rabat – the national archive has a website in Arabic and French
Mozambique
- Arquivo Histórico de Moçambique, Maputo
Namibia
- UNAM Archives, University of Namibia
Nigeria
- National Archives of Nigeria, Abuja
São Tomé and Principe
- Arquivo Histórico da São Tomé e Principe, São Tomé
Senegal
- Archives du Sénégal, Dakar
South Africa
- National Archives and Records Service – with a directory of archival repositories (2005)
- Links and resources, Historical Association of South Africa – an overview of links to organizations, archives, libraries and journals
- South Africa History Archive, Johannesburg
- Archival Platform, Archive & Public Culture, University of Cape Town – a portal to archives and archival institutions, especially in the Western Cape
- Guide to the Black Sash Archival Collections of South Africa, UCT Libraries, University of Cape Town – with a section for digitized documents
- Historical Papers Research Archives, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg – both online finding aids and digital collections, and useful links sections
Swaziland
- Swaziland National Archives, Mbabane
Tunesia
- Archives nationales de Tunisie, Tunis – interface Arabic, French and English
America
Latin-America
- Archives, Latin America Network Information Center (LANIC), University of Texas
- Censo-Guía de Archivos de España e Iberoamérica
- Portal de Archivos Españoles (PARES) – searching using the tree structure at this portal for Spanish online inventories and digitized archival records – and also manuscripts – can be daunting, but most rewarding, too; many collections are important for Latin-American history, and there are a lot of sub-domains – the online guide Taming PARES by Scott Cave and Ashleigh Dean is a must-read to unlock all riches
- Bicentenarios de las Independencias Iberoamericanas, PARES – a portal around archival resources in Spain and Latin American countires about the coming of their independence
- Directorio Web de Archivos Iberoamericanos, Fundación Mapfre
- Asociación Latinoamericana de Archivos (ALA), International Council of Archives – with a list of some national archives, and also its own website
- Caribbean Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (CARBICA), ICA with links to a number of national archives
- IberArchivos/IberArquivos – a platform for Latin American national archives
- Red de Archivos Diplomáticos Iberoamericanos (RADI)
- Guía del investigador americanista, Nuevo Mundo/Mondos Nuevos – a series of this journal running since 2006 with nutshell guides to libraries and archives in selected cities, published in French, Spanish and English or even in multiple languages; many of them excellent, some rather meagre; check also the links page
- Selected archival links, John E. Worth, University of West Florida – links to archives in Spain, Mexico, Guatemala, the USA and in other countries concerning colonial America, and attention to maps and palaeography, part of his guide for using online colonial documentary resources; there is also a page about Spanish colonial legislation
- Guía de archivos y fondos documentales, Instituto de Políticas Públicas en Derechos Humanos, Buenos Aires – a guide to archival collections concerning human rights, in particular for Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, Paraguay and Uruguay
- North American Archival Network (NAANICA), ICA
- Archives of the Early Modern Iberian Atlantic, Max Deardorff – a selection of relevant digital archives, libraries and museums; note also his other web directories
Argentina
- Archivos y bibliotecas, Asociación argentina de investigadores en Historia (Asaih) – a very useful list of links to (digital) libraries and archives in Argentina
- Archivo General de la Nación, Buenos Aires
- Archivo Nacional de la Memoria, Buenos Aires – an archive documenting the period of the military dictatorship
- Archivo Histórico de Cancillería, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto, Buenos Aires
- Archivos y Colecciones Particulares, Biblioteca Nacional Mariano Moreno, Buenos Aires
Aruba
- Archivo Nacional Aruba, Oranjestad
Bahamas
- Department of Archives, Nassau
Barbados
- West Indies Federal Archives Centre, St. Michael, Barbados
Bermuda
- Bermuda Archives, Hamilton, Bermuda
Bolivia
- Archivo y Biblioteca Nacionales de Bolivia, La Paz – with more information on this site
- Directorio de Archivos Históricos, ABN
- Archivo Histórico de la Minería nacional
Brasil
- Conselho Nacional de Arquivos (Conarq) – with a cadastro of archival institutions
- Dibrarq: Diretório Brasil de Arquivos, Arquivo Nacional – a database for searching archival collections and institutions with holdings, also for particular themes
- Arquivo Nacional, Rio de Janeiro – with a search system, accessible after registration; among the portalsites of the AN is the Roteiro de fontes do Arquivo Nacional para a História luso-brasileira, a guide to archival resources for Portuguese-Brasilian history, the subject at O Arquivo Nacional e a História Luso-Brasileira
- Arquivo Geral da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro – the municipal archive, with a separate search site, Guia de Fondos, and a digital archive (Acervio Digital)
- Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro (IHGB), Rio de Janeiro – an institute with important archival collections, a library and a museum
- Arquivo Histórico da Câmara dos Deputados, Brasilia
- Arquivo, Senado Federal, Brasilia
- Arquivo Público del Estado de São Paulo
- Arquivo Histórico Municipal, São Paulo
- Museu da Imigração do Estado de São Paulo – a museum with also archival collections, and digitized collections in the Acervo Digital
- Arquivo Histórico, Museu Imperial, Petrópolis – a museum documenting Brasil’s imperial period, with among its digital collections also digitized archival records
- Centro de Memoria da Amazônia, Bélem
- Accessus – Documentos de Arquivos Pessoais, Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea, Fundação Getulio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro – information about collections of private papers
- Arquivo Edgar Reuenroth, Universidade Estadual de Campinas – an important institution for Brasil’s social history in the twentieth century
- Arquivo Público Mineiro, Belo Horizonte – founded in 1895
The Dutch-Brazilian Mauritiana series of archival guides and similar guides for archival holdings in France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Ireland, and for the United States can be found online in the digital library of the Biblioteca Nacional (search for arquivos; PDF’s).
Canada
- ArchivesCanada – a portal to archives and archival research in Canada, with a good structured overview of institutions and virtual exhibits
- Canadian Archival Resources on the Internet, Cheryl Avery and Steven Billinton, Archives Canada – a very rich overview
- Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, Ottawa – the Canadian national archives and national library; interface English and French
- City of Ottawa Archives
- Directory, Canadian Council of Archives – a database for searching repositories
- Politics and Government, Libraries and Archives Canada – an overview of major digital collections for these themes, but it is wise to look also at other sections of this portal
- United Church of Canada Archives, Toronto
- Archeion: Repository, Archives Association of Ontario – a database with nearly 180 archives
- Memory BC, Archives Association of British Columbia – a search portal for archival collections in British Columbia
- Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec (BAnQ), Montreal – interface English and French
- Elisabeth Mann-Borgese Fonds, Dalhousie University Archives, Halifax – the papers of a daughter of Thomas Mann who became a champion of maritime law leading to the UN Convention of the Law of the Seas
Cayman Islands
- Cayman Islands National Archives, Georgetown, Grand Cayman
Chili
- Archivo nacional de Chile, Santiago de Chile
- ArchivosChile – a platform about archives in Chile and archival research
- Archivo Chile, Centro de Estudio Miguel Enriquez – a portal for contemporary history, with many links
- Archivo, Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Santiago de Chile
Colombia
- Archivo General de la Nación Colombia, Bogota – with an overview of archives, the Registro Nacional de Archivos Históricos
- Archivo Histórico de Antioquia
Costa Rica
- Censo Guía de Archivos, Archivo Nacional de Costa Rica – an overview of archives in Costa Rica; archived version, 2017, Internet Archive
Cuba
Curaçao
- Porta pa Historia, Nationaal Archief, Willemstad – Curaçao is now an independent island within the Kingdom of the Netherlands; there is a digital image library, and the archive has created the virtual timeline Curaçao History
Dominican Republic
- Archivo General de la Nación, Santo Domingo
- Archivo Histórico de Santiago
Ecuador
- Archivo Nacional del Ecuador, Quito
El Salvador
- Archivo General de la Nación, San Salvador
Guatemala
- Archivo General de Centro América, Ciudad de Guatemala
- Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica (CIRMA) – with a library for social sciences, a photo archive and an Archivo Histórico
Haiti
- Archives Nationales d’Haiti, Port-au-Prince
- Haitian Collections, George Smathers Libraries, University of Florida
Jamaica
- Jamaica Archives and Records Department, Kingston and Saint Catherine
- Manuscripts and Archive Collection, National Library of Jamaica, Kingston
Martinique
- Archives Territoriales de Martinique, Fort de France – with digitized archival collections and a digital library
Mexico
- Guía general de los fondos, Archivo General de Nación de México, Ciudad de México – an online overview of the collections in this national archive; the version from 1990 is also online; the AGN shows itself and some 1,000 documents at Google Arts & Culture
- Directorio Nacional de Archivos, AGN
- Acervo Histórico Diplomático, Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores
- Apoyo al desarollo de archivos y biblioteca de México (ADABI) – a portal for Mexican archives and libraries, with a Guía de archivos mexicanos and a bibliographical database
- Fondos antiguos, Novohispana, Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas, UNAM – overviews of a number of ecclesiastical and other archives, libraries and private collections with older materials
- Asociación Mexicana de Archivos y Bibliotecas Privados
- Archivos históricos en la Ciudad de México, Sistema de Información Cultural – an overview with 50 archival institutions in Mexico City; you can check for succinct information about nearly 1,300 archives at the SIC portal
- Archivio Histórico de la Ciudad de México
- Catálogo de protocolos del Archivo General de Notarias de la ciudad de México – Fondo Siglo XVI – Universidad Autónoma Nacional de México (UNAM) – a detailed inventory of notarial registers from the sixteenth century, with images of the registers
- Catálogo de protocolos del Archivo General de Notarias de la ciudad de México – Fondo Siglo XVII, UNAM – a detailed inventory of notarial registers from the seventeenth century, with images of the registers
- Actas Notariales de México, El Colegio de México – a database for searching in nineteenth-century notarial registers in the Archivo Histórico de Notarias de la Ciudad de México
- Archivo Histórico Diocesano de San Cristobal de las Casas – an interestin diocesan archive
Nicaragua
- Archivo General de la Nación, Managua
Panama
- Archivo Nacional, República de Panamá
Paraguay
- Archivo Nacional de Asunción, Asunción – with some digitized collections (via Consulta en linea)
Peru
- Archivo General de la Nación, Lima – with an overview of regional archives, and a Censo Guía de archivos del Peru (PDF)
- Portal de Archivos Peruanos (PAPE)
Puerto Rico
Het Center for Latin American Studies bij Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, biedt in het project Puerto Rico Archival Collaboration veel nuttige informatie aan.
Suriname
- Archievenoverzicht, Nationaal Archief Suriname, Paramaribo – an overview of the collections held in this national archive
Trinidad and Tobago
United States of America
- Online Research Tools and Aids, National Archives, Washington, DC – a good starting point to find materials both inside and outside, with for example the National Archives Catalog for finding archives, and Access to Archival Databases
- USA, Archives Wiki, American Historical Association – some states are missing… ; the wiki has been suspended
- Finding Aids, Library of Congress – the largest library of the world has also archival holdings
- National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC), Library of Congress – this online guide refers also to archival collections in the United States
- History, Art & Archives, United States House of Representatives
- Free Public Records Directory – a project guiding you to records kept in public record offices
- Directory of State Archives, Council of State Archivists
- Connecting Presidential Collections – a platform for finding collections in presidential archives and libraries
- National Security Archive, George Washington University – a non-governmental archival service with among other things the Digital National Security Archive with declassified U.S. documents
- National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NAJCD), Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan – with data since 1978
- Women and Leadership Archives, Loyola University Chicago
- ONE Archives: National Lesbian & Gay Archives, University of Southern California Libraries, Los Angeles
- ArchivesWest – formerly Northwestern Digital Archives, a repertory for six American states, with some digitized resources; you can search for themes
- RIAMCO: Rhode Island Archival and Manuscript Collections Online – a portal to online finding aids
- Virginia Heritage: A guide to manuscript and archival collections in Virginia – some 13,000 collections
- HOLLIS for Archival Discovery, Harvard University – digital finding aids for its rich archival collections
- Archival collections, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC – an example with a great variety of collections and finding aids
- Finding aids, Yale University Library – searching in archival collections in the libraries of Yale University, with also various research guides – see now Archives at Yale
- Archival collections portal, Columbia University, New York City
- Archives and manuscripts, New York Public Library
- Library and Museum, New York Historical Society – the “Manuscript Collections” contain archival records
- Archives and Special Collections, The New School, New York City
- Finding aids, Princeton University – see also the Princeton University Archives
- Finding aids for archival and manuscript collections, Cornell University – with also an alphabetical overview of finding aids
- Documentary Relations of the South West, University of ArIzona – finding aids and indexes for 1,500 microfilms with archival records on New Spain until 1821
- A guide to French Louisiana manuscripts, The Historic New Orleans Collection, Center for Louisiana Studies and École nationale des Chartes, Paris – an indispensable guide to archival records in the USA and in France concerning the colonial period of Louisiana
- Manuscript inventories, University of Virginia Law Library – not only manuscripts, but personal papers of lawyers and judges; there are several digital collections
- Labor Archives of Washington, Seattle, WA – with also digital collections
The Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, provide an online guide for doing research in major US archives and libraries with archival collections.
Uruguay
- Archivo General de la Nacion, Montevideo – the national archive has two main sections, the Archivo Histórico and the Archivo Judicial
- Archivo Histórico-Diplomático, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores
Venezuela
- Archivo General de la Nación, Caracas
- Academia Nacional de la Historia de Venezuela, Caracas – with also archival collections
Asia
- East Asian Regional Branch (EASTICA), ICA – with here links to a number of national archives
- South East Asian Regional Branch (SARBICA), ICA – with links to a number of national archives
- South and West Asian Regional Branch (SWARBICA), ICA – with links to four national archives
- Arab Regional Branch (ARBICA), ICA – with links to a number of national archives in the Middle East
- Eurasia Regional Branch (EURASICA), ICA
- Chinese Archives: An introductory guide, Ye Wa and Joseph W. Esherick (eds.) (Berkeley, CA, 1996) – still a valuable guide to archives in China and Taiwan (PDF)
- Directory of Archives – a site of the company behind the Indian Memory Project, with links to archives in India, Nepal, Pakistan and Hong Kong, and also for South Africa, Germany, the United Kingdom and the USA
- Archive, Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge – with both original materials and microfilms related to British India
- Archives of Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – to be used in combination with the subject guides of the Slavic Reference Service
Armenia
- National Archives of Armenia, Yerevan – interface Armenian, Russian and English
Azerbaijan
- Azərbaycan Respublikasının Milli Arxiv İdarəsi [National Archives of the Republic Azerbaijan], Baku
Bangladesh
Bhutan
- Druk Gyelyong Pedzö [National Library and Archives of Bhutan], Thimphu – interface Dzongkha and English
Cambodja
- Archives nationales de Cambodge, Phnom Penh – interface Khmer, French and English
- Documentation Centre of Cambodja, Phnom Penh
China
- National Archives Administration of China, Beijing – the central agency for Chinese archives; interface Chinese and English
- First Historical Archives of China, Beijing – with documents from the Qing period
- Second Historical Archives of China, Nanjing – with archival records from the republican period (1912-1949); interface Chinese and English
- Sichuan Provincial Archives
- Shanghai Municipal Archives
- Beijing Municipal Archives – interface Chinese and English
- Suzhou Municipal Archives
- Hangzhou Municipal Archives
- Guangzhou National Archives – this harbor city was long known as Canton
- Chinese Maritime Customs Project, University of Bristol – an inventory of some 55,000 files
On the website Resources for the history of the People’s Republic of China you will find a very full list of archives with comments but also other valuable information.
Hong Kong
- Government Records Service – the archives of this special administratieve region within China
- Legislative Council Archives – founded in 2012
- The Hong Kong Heritage Project – the archive of the Kadoorie family and much more
India
- National Archives of India, New Delhi – with records centers in Bhopal, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar and Puducherry
- Delhi Archives – with a list of other archives in India, mainly state archives
- Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi- with also archival collections; interface Hindi and English – see now also the Prime Ministers Museum & Library
- Tamil Nadu State Archives, Madras – the former Madras Record Office, with currently six district record centers
- Directorate of Archives and Archaeology, Mala, Goa – founded in 1595
Indonesia
- Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia, Jacarta – the Indonesian national archive; interface Bahasa Indonesia and English
- Jaringan Informasi Kearsipan Indonesia – the portal of the Indonesian archival network; interface Bahasa Indonesia and English
Iraq
- Dār al-Kutub wa al-Wathā’iq al-‘Irāqiyyah [National Library and Archives of Iraq], Baghdad
Israel
- The Israel State Archives, Jerusalem – interface Hebrew and English
- The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, Jerusalem
- Opening Jerusalem Archives – an international project for Jerusalem’s history between 1840 and 1940 with a database for collections, some of them digitized, and a bibliography
Japan
- National Archives of Japan, Tokyo – with an overview of links for other archives in Japan
- Diplomatic Archives, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tokyo
- Military Archives, National Institute for Defense Studies, Tokyo
- Archives, Imperial Household Agency (Kunaicho), Tokyo
- Tokyo Metropolitan Archives
- Yokohama Archives of History – interface Japanese, English, Korean and Chinese
Kazachstan
- Cental State Archives of the Republic Kazachstan, Almaty – interface Kazachian and Russian
Kyrgyzstan
- State Archives, Bishek – the portal of archives in this country
Lebanon
- Centre des Archives Nationales, Beirout
Macau
- Arquivo de Macau – the archive of this former Portuguese city, now like Hongkong a region with special status within China; the official gazette (Boletim do Goberno / Boletim official de Macau, 1850-1999) has been digitized; interface Chinese, Portuguese and English
Malaysia
- Arkib Negara Malaysia (National Archives of Malaysia), Kuala Lumpur – with online finding aids (access after registration); interface Bahasa Malay and English
Mongolia
- National Central Archives, Ulaanbaatar
Myanmar
- National Archives of Myanmar, Naypyidaw – interface Myanmar and English
Nepal
- National Archives, Kathmandu – interface Nepali and English
Oman
- National Records and Archives Authority, Al Athaiba – interface Arabic and English
Pakistan
- National Archives of Pakistan, Islamabad
- National Documentation Wing, Cabinet Division, Government of Pakistan, Islamabad – an archive with important holding concerning the British colonial period
- Archive Collection, National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, Islamabad – with collections about Mohammed Jinnah
- Sindh Archives, Karachi
- Punjab Archives, Lahore
- Balochistan Archives, Quetta – with some digitized collections
- The Citizens Archive of Pakistan – with locations in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore
Philippines
Russia
- Access to Russian Archives, TICFIA Project, Eastview – free access to a guide for federal and regional archives; search interface English and Russian
- ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia, International Institute for Social History, Amsterdam, and Eastview – a very useful guide to Russian archives, for example to the Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv drevnikh aktov (RGADA), the Archive of Old Laws
- The Russian Empire and Soviet Union: A Guide to Manuscripts and Archival Materials in the United States, Steven A. Grant and John H. Brown (eds.) (Boston, MA, 1980) – online as a database (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), in page view or PDF (Library of Congress, European Reading Room)
- Guides book search, Russian Archives – a database for searching records in a number of Russian archives; interface Russian and English, with transliteration option
- St. Petersburg Archives
- Rosiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Kinofotodokumento (RGAKFD), Krasnogorsk – the Russian state archive for audiovisual collections; interface Russian; there is an English version of the movie catalogue
For archives in Moscow and St. Petersburg there is the massive guide by Patricia Kennedy Grimsted, Archives in Russia. A Directory and Bibliographic Guide to Holdings in Moscow and St.Petersburg (London, etc., 2016). Earlier on she published Archives and Manuscript Repositories in the USSR: Ukraine and Moldavia, I: General Bibliography and Institutional Directory (Princeton, NJ, 1988).
Singapore
- National Archives of Singapore – searchable through the One Search portal for archives, libraries, museums and galleries in Singapore
South-Korea
- National Archives of South-Korea, Seoul – interface Korean, Chinese, Japanese and English
- Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies, Seoul National University – this institute has holdings from the former royal library of the Joseon dynasty, with a separate website for Kyujanggak Archive Search; there are digitized documents
- The Archives of Korean History, National Institute of Korean History
- National Assembly Archives, Seoul – interface Korean
- Seoul Metropolitan Archives – the municipal archive
Sri Lanka
- Department of National Archives, Colombo
Taiwan
- Taiwan Historica, Nantou City – interface Chinese and English
- Archives, Institute of Modern History, Academica Sinica, Taipei – interface Chinese and English
- Kwo Min Tang Party Archives, Taipei – interface Chinese
Thailand
- National Archives of Thailand, Bangkok
Turkey
- Devlet Arsivleri Genel Müdüdürlügü (National Archives of Turkey) – with the important Ottoman Archives (Osmanlı Arşivi Daire Başkanlığı); access to catalog only after registration, interface Turkish, Arabic, English and French – this archive has its own publications series in open access, including a guide to the Ottoman Archive (in Turkish, 2017)
- Turkish Archives and Libraries, FamilySearch – a commented overview of some main institutions
- Archives in Turkey, Suna Kiraç Library, Koç University, Istanbul – a guide to twelve archives
- Arsivler, Sakarya Universitesi – a short list, but note the very substantial other lists for libraries provided here
- Arsiv, Türk Tahir Kurumu [Turkish Historical Society], Ankara – with collections from the late Ottoman Empire and the early republic
- Kizilay Tarih (History of the Turkish Red Crescent), Ankara – the archive and library for the history of the Turkish Red Cross
- Kadın Eserleri Kütüphanesi ve Bilgi Merkezi Vakfı (Women’s History Library and Documentation Center), Istanbul – with a number of atchival collections
- Topkapi Sarayi Muzesi Arsiv, Istanbul – only the Turkish version of the website has information about the archive with important Ottoman records; see also the general research page
- Archives, SALT Research, Istanbul – an archive and library for urban and economic history, architecture and art with numerous digitized collections
United Arab Emirates
- National Archives, Abu Dhabi – interface Arabic and English
Uzbekistan
- O’zbekiston Respublikasi O’Zarxiv Agentlisi, Tasjkent – with interfaces in four languages
Australia and New Zealand – Oceania
Australia
- National Archives of Australia (NAA) – with offices In Canberra and seven other towns
- Other Australian archival institutions, NAA
- Directory of Archives in Australia, Australian Society of Archivists
- Diaries, letters, archives, Trove, National Library of Australia – the Trove cultural heritage portal allow you to search for these resources, partially at collection level, partially for individual items, you check for digitized collections
- City of Sydney Archives
New Zealand
- Archway: Access Online to Archives New Zealand, Archives New Zealand / Te Rua Mahara o te Kâwanatanga – an online catalogue to finding aids of archival collections in New Zealand, note the guide for law and the courts (Wellington office)
- The Community Archive: National Register of Archives and Manuscripts – also for private archives and collections
- Maori Land Court Minute Books Index, University of Auckland – searching for cases between 1865 and 1910
Oceania
- Pacific Regional Branch (PARBICA), ICA – with a useful links section for archives and some libraries
- Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, Australian National University College of Asia & the Pacific, Canberra
- Archives de la Nouvelle Calédonie, Noumea
Digital archival collections
– in alphabetical order of continents and countries
Worldwide
- The Archives and Records are Accessible, International Council on Archives – an initiative launched in April 2020 to build an interactive map with information about digitzed collections worldwide
- Endangered Archives Programme (EAP), British Library and Arcadia – the great project to support the conservation and digitization of fragile or otherwise endangered archives and libraries
- Modern Endangered Archives Program (MEAP), UCLA Library and Arcadia
- United Nations Human Rights Treaties: Travaux Préparatoires, University of Virginia School of Law
- Judicial Archives and Records Database, United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT)
- ICRC Audiovisual Archives – a website of the Red Cross with for example images concerning detention
- Fundos e Coleções no Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, Arquivo Científico Tropical Digital Repository – an overview of digitized archival collections of the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, Lissabon
- Search portal, Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, Lissabon – for searching (digitized) archival records concerning Portugal’s colonial Empire (Brasil, Angola, Mozambique, etc.); interface Portuguese and English
- Biblioteca Digital, Memórias do Africa e do Oriente – not only digitized books but also digitized archival sources from the Portuguese colonial empire in Africa and Asia
- État civil, Archives nationales d’outre-mer, Aix-en-Provence – registers for civilian status for countries in the Caribbean, Africa, South-East Asia and the Pacific within the former French colonial empire
- NATO Archives Online, North Atlantic Treaty Organization
- Moravian Lives – an international crowdsourcing project for transcribing some 60.000 digitized memoirs of Moravian brethren from 1750 to 2012
- Archives, SOAS Digital Collections, School of Oriental and African Studies, London
- Digital Archive: International History Declassified, Wilson Center, Washington, DC- digital collections on a number of subject from 20th century history
- Virtual tribunals: Public records from international criminal tribunal proceedings, 1948-present, Stanford University Libraries – with collections for the Nuremberg Trials, U.S. Army courts in Germany and Asia after 1945, and tribunals for East Timor and Lebanon
- Archnet – a project with digital collections worldwide, with for example attention to architecture; note also the range of resources
- The Margarita S. Studemeister Digital Collections in International Conflict Management, United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC – collections concerning peace agreements since 1989, truth commissions and oral histories
- Basel Mission Archives – 30,000 images, 6,700 maps, and numerous drawings of this missionary organization active in Africa and Asia
- League of Nations Digital Archive, United Nations, Geneva – a digital collection with documents and images, finding aids, and links to resources elsewhere
- GATT Digital Library 1947-1994, World Trade Organization and Stanford Libraries – mainly documents concerning the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
- Archive-it – one of the major international initiatives for archiving websites
- British Documents on the End of Empire (BDEEP), Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London – a digitized multivolume publication on Developments and policies
- Historical Statistics, Rodney Edvinsson – a portal for several European countries, China, India, Russia, the USA and some other countries
Africa
- African Digital Research Repositories, International African Institute, School of Oriental and African Studies, London – a very rich overview of digital libraries and also some archives
- Slave Societies Digital Archive (formerly called Ecclesiastical and Secular Sources for Slave Societies), Vanderbilt University – a project with digital archival collections for Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Spanish Florida, and also for the African port towns Ouidah and Luanda
Egypt
- President Gamal Abder Nasser, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria – a digital archive and library; interface Arabic, English and French
- Anwar Sadat Digital Archive, Bibliotheca Alexandrina – interface Arabic
- Mohamed Naguib Digital Archive, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria – interface Arabic
- Memory of the Suez Canal, Bibliotheca Alexandrina – interface Arabic
- Tahrir Documents, University of California, Los Angeles – an online archive of the 2011 revolution
- Politics, Popular Culture and the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, University of Warwick
Liberia
- Liberian collections, Archives Online, Indiana University, Bloomington
Morocco
- The Rabat Genizah Project, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon, and Musée du judaïsme Marocain, Casablanca – digitized Moroccan Jewish documents
Namibia
- Namibian Digital Archive, Polytechnic of Namibia, Utah Valley University and National Archives of Namibia – digitized archival collections, photographs, films and books
Rwanda
- Genocide Archive of Rwanda, Aegis Trust – documents about the 1994 genocide
Sierra Leone
- Sierra Leone Collection, University of Illinois at Chicago – documents concerning the Sierra Leone Company and British actions against slavery in the nineteenth century
South Africa
- ANC Archives – a digital archive of this political movement
- Nelson Mandela Center of Memory, Johannesburg
- South African History Archive (SAHA) – a portal with digital collections
- British concentration camps of the South African War 1900-1902, UCT Libraries, University of Cape Town
Sudan
- Sudan Archive, Durham University Library – papers of officials, documents and Sudan government gazettes
America
- Our Americas, Rice University, University of Maryland and Instituto Mora (Mexico)
- Online publications, New Netherland Institute, Albany, NY – some digitized editions and translations concerning the Dutch presence in New York and the Caribbean are accompanied by images of the original archival records, for example the Curaçao Papers
Latin America
- Archivo del Libertador, Bolivianum, Caracas – a digital collection around Simon Bolivar
- Slave Societies Digital Archive (formerly called Ecclesiastical and Secular Sources for Slave Societies), Vanderbilt University – a project with digital archival collections for Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Spanish Florida, and also for the African port towns Ouidah and Luanda
- Mesoamerican Archive / Archivo Mesoamericano, Indiana University – an oral history archive documenting violence and protest in Central America and Mexico
- UNM Spanish Colonial Research Center, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque – some 1,500 digitized documents from Spanish and Mexican archives
- Los primeros negros en las Americas. La presencia Africana en la república Dominicana / First Blacks in the Americas, Dominican Studies Institute, New York – a portal with many historical records for Haiti and the Dominican Republic from Sevilla and Santo Domingo, see also the tutorial Spanish Palaeography; interface Spanish and English
- Latin American Government Documents Archive (LAGDA), LANIC – with documents from 18 countries
- Latin American Digital Initiatives, University of Texas at Austin – a growing number of digitized archival collections, books, newspapers and ephemera from several countries; interface English, Spanish and Portuguese
- Bexar Archives Online 1717-1805, Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin – documents from the Spanish colonial period of Texas
- Mesolore, Liza Bakewell and Byron Hamann – a project with images and transcriptions of Mesoamerican documents in Nahua and Ã’udzavui, with tutorials and an interactive map
- LACLI: Latin American, Caribbean, Latinx, and Iberian Free Online Resources, Latin America Northeast Libraries Network (LANE), Colegio de México a.o. – a portal with annotated web directory for digital collections of archives, libraries and museums
Argentina
- MEMORar: Fondos documentales históricos, Ministerio de Cultura – a portal for searching (digitized) historical documents in Argentine archives, libraries and museums
- Argentina Declassification Project, Office of the Director of National Intelligence – declassified archival records for the period 1975-1984 on the role of the USA during the military dictatorship
Aruba
- Potret, video e documentonan historico di Aruba, Archivo Nacional Aruba – digitized audiovisual materials and archival records
Bolivia
- Archivo Histórico Digital, Gobierno Autónomo Municipal de La Paz
Brasil
- Base de Dados, Acervo Judiciário do Arquivo Nacional
- Projeto Resgate, Biblioteca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro – digitized documents from the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino in Lisbon
- Repositorio Digital, Arquivo Público del Estado de São Paulo – several digital collections
- Archivo Histórico Digital de São Roque, Arthur Lovisolo
- Brasil Doc, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais – a digital archive on contemporary history, in particular the dictatorial period
- Rede Memória, Biblioteca Nacional – a portal for several major museums, libraries, with also some archival collections (choose Projeto Reencontro)
- Acervo histórico, Assembleia Legislativa do Estado de São Paulo
- Documentos Revelados, Aluízio Palmar – an initiative for a digital collection with sources concerning the military dictature between 1964 and 1985
- Acervo digital, Museu da Imigração do Estado de São Paulo – a digital archive concerning immgration history
- Muitas Mãos e Várias Penas – transcribed inquisitorial records from the Portuguese inquisition relating to Brasil Holandès (1624-1654)
Canada
- Canadian National Digital Heritage Index (CNDHI) – a portal for searching digital collections
- Héritage / Heritage, Canadiana – a portal to a selection of digitized archival collections, with genealogy, native history, government documents, military history and private papers
- Colonial Despatches: The colonial despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia 1846-1871, University of Victoria – digitized documents about the colonial administration, with also maps, see also the website for The Governor’s Letters
- Orders in Council (1867-1924), Libraries and Archives Canada – official recommandations for legislative and administrative matters on a wide range of subjects
- The Loyalist Collection, University of New Brunswick – documents concerning support for the British cause between 1750 and 1850
- BAnQ Numérique, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) – the digital portal for both digitized books, audiovisual materials and archival records
- Archives des notaires du Québec, BAnQ – indexes to notarial registers and also digitized items from the earliest records until 1934
- Registres de l’état civil du Québec, BAnQ – from 1900 onwards progressing, until now to 1913
- New France Archives / Archives de la Nouvelle France, Libraries and Archives Canada
- The Archives of the Civil Code Revision Office, McGill University, Montreal – between 1966 and 1979 the Civil Code of Quebec has been revised
- Irish Famine Archive, National University of Ireland, Galway – a website with eywitness accounts noted down in Montreal in 1847 and 1848
Chile
- Colecciones digitales, Archivo Nacional de Chile
- Archivos históricos digitales, Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile
- Archivo Digital, Fundación Museo de la Memoria y Derechos Humanos
- Memoria Histórica Digital, Poder Judicial – a digital library and archive of the judicial powers
Colombia
- Negros y Esclavos, Archivo General de la Nación – an online guide to digitized archival records concerning black people and slavery held in four Colombian archives; interface Spanish and English
Cuba
- Cuban Slavery documents, Brown University Library – some 120 documents from the period 1820-1892
Curaçao
- Digital Library, Central Bureau of Statistics – with publications from the mid-twentieth century onwards
Dominican Republic
- Fondos y colecciones digitales, Archivo General de la Nación – the documentos textuales contain digitized archival collections
Guatemala
- Digital archive, Archivo Historico de la Policia Nacional, University of Texas at Austin – documents from the periode 1960 to 1990, discovered in 2005
Martinique
- Banque Numérique des Patrimoines Martiniquais, Collectivité Territoriale de Martinique and Direction régionale des Affaires Culturelles – a portal for digitized cultural heritage with digitized civil records, archival records, images, archaeological objects and books; interface French and English
Mexico
- Mapas, planos e ilustraciones, Archivo General de la Nación (AGN) – temporarily suspended
- Memórica – a portal with a selection of archival records from numerous archives and other institutions around themes
- Archivo, Centre de Estudios de Historia de México, Fundacion Carlos Slim – finding aids and digitized documents in a rich archive
- Archivo histórico “Genaro Estrada”, Acervo Histórico Diplomático, Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores
- Archivo de Lucas Alamán / The Lucas Alamán Papers, 1589-1853, University of Texas at Austin – 360 digitized documents of a Mexican politician and historian
- Colecciones Mexicanas, Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México – a portal with digitized archival records, for example the Archivo Mexicano at the AGN, and En defensa de la patria 1847-1897
- Acervo Digital, Archivo Historico del Estado de Aguascalientes
- The Mexican Intelligence Digital Archives, Center for Research Libraries, Northwestern University and El Colegio de México – digitized documents of the Dirección Federal de Seguridad (DFS) and the Dirección General de Investigaciones Políticas y Sociales (DGIPS) between 1940 and around 1985, and also later documents
- Colecciones digitales, Universidad de las Americas, Puebla – both a number of archival collections and digitized books
- Archicofrad’a del Sant’simo Sacramento y Caridad. Records, 1555-1858, Digital Collections, The University of Chicago Library – a small digital collection with legal materials
- Ticha, a digital explorer for colonial Zapotec, Haverford College – a project with 200 digitized documents and manuscripts held in Mexican archives in the Zapotec language from the seventeenth century onwards, with many bills of sale and testaments; interface English and Spanish
- Mexico Documents Collection, University of Houston Libraries – some 250 items
Panama
- Panama and the Canal, University of Florida Libraries and Panama Canal Museum – three digital collections
Peru
- Documentos históricos en linea, Archivo General de la Nación
Puerto Rico
- Colecciones digitales, Archivo Digital Nacional de Puerto Rico
- Archivo Digital Nacional de Puerto Rico
- Puerto Rican Slave Documents, New York Public Library – 67 documents about slavery (1867-1872)
- Puerto Rico Civil Court Documents, Internet Archive, University of Connecticut Libraries and CRL, Chicago – 235 documents of an appellate court, the Corte de Primera Instancia at Arecibo, between 1844 and 1900
Suriname
- Archieven online, Nationaal Archief Suriname, Paramaribo – 35 digital collections
- Slavenregisters, Nationaal Archief Suriname and Nationaal Archief, The Hague – digitized slavery registers from the nineteenth century
United States
- IMLS Digital Collections and Content: U.S. History Resources from Libraries, Museums and Archives, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – a portal to digital collections in the USA, formerly known as Opening History; alas the database has stopped functioning
- Digital State Archives – a useful personal overview of digital archival collections
- Founders Online, National Archives and Records Administration – the digitized papers of six Founding Fathers (Adams, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison and Washington) mostly their letters and extensive documentation
- Founders Early Access, Rotunda, University of Virginia – the open access section of the licensed Rotunda platform offers a substantial number of transcriptions of records created by the Founding Fathers
- Digital collections, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston – with both digital collections, in particular concerning John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, the Boston Massacre and the Civil War, and also digital exhibitions
- Adams Papers Digital Edition, Massachusetts Historical Society
- The Diaries of John Quincy Adams: A Digital Edition, Massachusetts Historical Society – 51 diaries from 1779 onwards
- Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive, Massachusetts Historical Society – with correspondence between John and Abigail Adams, and John Adams’ autobiography
- John Jay Papers, Columbia University Libraries – a digital collection for another Founding Father
- The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Yale University and American Philosophical Society – an online version of the edition of the papers of this versatile Founding Father
- Benjamin Franklin Papers, Library of Congress – some 8,000 digitized items
- Thomas Jefferson Project, The College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA
- Washington Papers, University of Virginia – both digitized documents and online editions of papers and letters
- FBI Records: The Vault, Federal Bureau of Investigation
- The Papers of the War Department (1784-1800), Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media – fire destroyed the War Department in 1800, but a considerable number of documents was saved and has been digitized – and transcribed – in this collection with 42,800 documents
- Umbra Search African American History, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN – a search portal for digitized tems in collections from more than onte thousand libraries and archives
- Probing the Past: Virginia & Maryland Probate Inventories, 1740-1810
- Archives of Maryland Online – a wide variety of legal documents from 1634 onwards
- Lincoln Manuscripts, Hay Library, Brown University – some 1,000 manuscripts about and from Abraham Lincoln
- Florida Memory, State Library and Archives of Florida – with a fine section for legal documents
- From the Vaults, New York City Department of Records and Administration – with the famous New Amsterdam records (1647-1661) and additional stories, Almshouse Ledgers and Records of Slavery and Emancipation
- NYC Municipal Archives, New York City Department of Records and Administration – some 500,000 images, with also collections touching legal history, for example NYPD and Criminal Persecution
- Digital collections, New York Historical Society Museum & Library – a fair number of these collections contain archival records
- Harlem in Disorder. A spatial history of race and violence in the Great Depression, Stephen Robertson, Georg Mason University, Washington, DC – a combination of an open archive and citizens’ history concerning the 1935 Afro-American riot
- Passenger Search, The Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island, New York – for searching the names of 51 million immigrants; full access after free registration
- New York Slavery Records Index, City University of New York – records from 1525 up to the Civil War
- Digital collections, New York State Archives, Albany – with a special collection Dutch Records
- Witness to the Early American Experience, New York University and New York Historical Society – a selection of digitized documents and archival records
- Colonial North America Project, Harvard University Library – a digitization project for archival collections and manuscripts held at Harvard University
- Digital Archives, Washington State Archives – one of the earliest American digital archives
- Slavery and the U.S. Supreme Court: The Amistad Case, Tulane University Digital Library – a digital collection around the case of a slave ship that started its journey from Havana in 1839
- Slavery Law & Power in Early America and the British Empire, University of Maryland, NARA and the American Society for Legal History – a rich portal, with also a concise bibliography and a fine selection of additional resources
- St. Louis Circuit Court Records, Washington University, St. Louis, MO – digitized case records between 1809 and 1855, in a way the logical sequel to The Revised Dred Scott Case Collection
- Yale Indian Papers Project, Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University – digitized documents from several archives, libraries and museums
- Hidden Collections Registry, CLIR – a slightly misleading name for the database with CLIR funded collections which have been either digitized, preserved or catalogued
- Online Archive of California – a portal to digitized collections in Californian archives, libraries and museums
- Calisphere, University of California – the portal to the digital collections of many Californian universities
- Sigmund Freund Papers, Library of Congress – some 2,000 documents
- Hannah Ahrendt Papers, Library of Congress – some 1,550 documents
- Louisiana Colonial Documents, Louisiana State Museum, New Orleans – some 18,600 documents from the French and Spanish periods
- Spanish Archives of Laredo, The Portal to Texas History, University of North Texas – nearly 3,600 digitized archival documents created between 1749 and 1872
- Digital resource guide for the Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington, Seattle
- American Archive of Public Broadcasting, Library of Congress and WGBH – with broadcasts from the 1940s onwards
- Digital Collections, Center for Family History, International African American Museum, Charleston, SC – with also links for Afro-American genealogy
- 19th Century Prison Reform Collection, Cornell University Library – nearly 500 archival records
- Jefferson Davis Trial Papers, 1866-1868, The University of Chicago Library – fourteen digitized documents concerning this trial against a former president
- Early Texas Documents, University of Houston Libraries – nearly 1,300 archival records from the colonial period onwards
- CCP Digital Records, University of Delaware – the digital archive of the Colored Conventions Project
- Los Angeles Area Court Records, Huntington Library, San Marino – some 90,000 cases between 1850 and 1910
- The September 11 Digital Archive – an online archive about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001
- Hurricane Digital Memory Bank – an archive about the impact of the hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the New Orleans region in 2005
- A Journal of the Plague: An Archive of COVID-19 – an initiative for an archive of the United States during the crisis around this pandemic
- Homicide in Chicago 1870-1930, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL – a digital collection around 11,000 homicide reports of the Chicago police department
Asia
- Asnad: Digital Persian Archives, Zentrum für Nah- und Mittelost-Studien, Philipps-Universität Marburg – digitized documents and deeds from Iran and Central Asia up to the twentieth century; interface English and Farsi
- Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, National Archives of Japan, Tokyo – interface Japanese, Chinese, Korean and English
- The Nanking Massacre Project, Divinity Library, Yale University – digitized documents about the events around the Japanese invasion in 1937-1938 of this Chinese city
- Archives Across Boundaries, National Archives Taiwan – a portal for searching in some 90 digital collections of 36 archives, museums and libraries in Taiwan and Japan; interface Chinese and English
- Indian Ocean in World History: An Ocean of Paper, Sultan Qaboos Culturel Center, Oman – a project around deeds and contract law through the ages
Middle East
- Miscellanea documenti turchi, Progetto Divenire, Archivio di Stato, Venice – digitized documents from the Ottoman period
- Ottoman Diplomats. Letters from the imperial legation in Brussels (1848-1918), Universiteit Antwerpen
- The Cairo Genizah, Cambridge University Library – some 18.000 digitized documents of the vast and fascinating Taylor-Schechter collection
- Arabian Gulf Digital Archive, National Archives, United Arabic Emirates – interface Arabic and English
- King-Crane Commission Digital Collection, Oberlin College – records of the commission visiting the territories of the former Ottoman empire in 1919
- Ottoman Records of Greater Syria: Islamic Court Registers, Advisory Council Records, and Private Family Papers, Brown University – with records from Nablus and Tripoli
Afghanistan
- Afghan Media Resource Center, Peshawar – Internet Archive – some 100,000 objects; the AMRC is active since 1987
Armenia
- Krikor Guergerian Archive, Clark University, Worcester, MA, and Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem – the core of this archive are digitized materials concerning trials between 1919 and 1921 after the Armenian genocide; interface English and Turkish
Cambodia
- Noradam Sihanouk Archival Collection, Monash University – 150 items from this king’s personal collection
China
- Bibliothèque numérique, Institut d’Asie Orientale, Lyons – a digital library with not only books and journals, but also archival records, images and sound recordings
- Historical photographs of China, University of Bristol – with a rich links list for other photographic collections
- Chinese Land Records, University of Pittsburgh Libraries – 220 documents from the late sixteenth-century until the twentieth century
- Chinese Marriage Documents, University of Pittsburgh Libraries – 26 documents from 1909 to 1997
- The Maoist Legacy, Universität Freiburg and Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Munich – a digital project around the (judicial) actions of the communist party after the end of the Cultural Revolution; access after registration
- Chinese Digital Archive 1966-1976, Australian National University, Canberra – some 450 documents and books
- Tiananmen Square Collection, University Library, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN – some 400 photographs of the 1989 student protest in Beijing
Hong Kong
- Online holdings, Government Record Services – three digital collections and three virtual exhibits
- Hong Kong Memory – a cultural heritage portal
- Municipal Council Archives, Hong Kong Public Libraries – some 48,000 digitized archival records of the city council between 1965 and 2000
- Land Deeds Collection, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Library – 160 land deeds and six volumes of fish-scale registers, mid-seventeenth to twentieth century
- Open Public Records of the UK National Archives, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Library – dozens of digitized documents from various series
- Sheng Xuanhei Archive, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Library – documents and transcriptions concerning a very influential merchant and politician (1844-1916) who initiated many projects
- Elsie Tu Digital Collection, Hong Kong Baptist University – speeches and publications of a scholar who followed closely political and legal developments in Hong Kong
- HKBU Corpora, Hong Kong Baptist University – two linguistic corpora, Corpus of Political Speeches (1789-2015) and The Chinese/English Political Interpreting Corpus (1997-2017), both speeches from the USA, Hong Kong and China
India
- Abhilekh Patal – Portal for access to archives and learning – a portal of the National Archives of India with a database for finding archival records and fifteen digital collections
- Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Papers, National Archives of India
- National Cultural Audiovisual Archives – a national digital image archive for India
- Museums of India: National Portal and Digital Repository – a portal for ten museums, with for example documents at the Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata
- E-Abhilekh, Delhi Archives – various digitized archival records
- Bombay High Court Virtual Museum – not only digitized books and archival records, but also images, verdicts and law reports
- Digital archives, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi
- Akhbarat Archive, Royal Asiatic Society, London – court letters (akhbars) from the Moghul emperors in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
Indonesia
- Serajah Nusantara: Treasures from the 17th and 18th century VOC Archive, Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia, Jakarta – digitized archival records on the Dutch East India Company
- Kong Koan Papers, Leiden University Library – some 630 items from the archive of the Kong Koan, the Chinese Council in Early Modern Batavia (Jakarta) which acted as a court for minor criminal offences and civil lawsuits between Chinese citizens
- Sukarno Speeches, Monash University – some 150 speeches held between 1956 and 1966 by the first president of Indonesia
Iran
- Women Worlds in Qajar Iran, Harvard University – photographs and (legal) documents from the period 1796-1925
Iraq
- Iraqi Jewish Archive, National Archives and Records Administration – in 2003 some 2,700 books and many thousand documents were found in the Iraqi intelligence headquarters, with a virtual exhibit
Japan
- Digital Archive, National Archives of Japan – with special attention to the Japanese constitution
- Japan Search – a portal for searching digitized items in the collections of cultural institutions, including a growing number of archives; interface Japanese and English
- Digital Archive of the Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan
- Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, National Archives of Japan
- The Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, University of Virginia School of Law – digital collections concerning this military tribunal in the aftermath of the Second World War
- Judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, Library of Congress – the verdicts rendered in 1948
- Civil Court Ruling Files from the early Meiji Period, International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto – for the period 1868-1890 (Meiji 1 to 23; access after registration
- Japan Disasters Digital Archive, Harvard University
- Digital Archive, Red Cross Nuclear Disaster Resource Center – interface Japanese and English
- Great East Japan Earthquake Archive, National Diet Library – interface Japanese and English
- The Hyakugo Archives Web, Kyoto – some 25,000 documents from the eight to the eighteenth centuries, originally held at Toji; interface Japanese and English
- Digitized Japanese scrolls, 1158-1591, Harvard Law School Library – 22 rare komonjo on a wide variety of subjects
- Komonjo, Princeton University – images, transcriptions and articles
Lebanon
- Digital Collections, American University of Beirut – a digital library and archive
Macau
- Memórias de Macau – a portal for the cultural heritage of Macau, with archival records, books and museal objects; interface Portuguese and Chinese
Nepal
- Documenta Nepalica: Religions- und rechtsgeschichtliche Quellen des vormodernen Nepal, Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften – an ongoing project, with a publication series in open access
Philippines
- Philippine Archives Collection, Philippine Veterans Affair Office, Quezon City, and NARA, Maryland Branch – documents about the Second Wolrd War
Russia
- Berestjanye gramoty (Birch bark manuscripts) – one thousand texts, mainly letters from medieval Novgorod between the eleventh and fifteenth century
- Stalin Digital Archive, Yale University Press and Russian State Archive of Social and Political History – with also a useful secton with links to relevant research institutions; full access after registration
- Документы Советской Эпохи (Documents of the Soviet Era), Russian Federal Archival Agency – the digital archive of the Komintern (Communist International), interface Russian; there is a users guide at Hatful of History
- Communist International (Comintern) Archives Project, European Reading Room, Library of Congress and Russian State Archives for Social and Political History (RGASPI), Moscow – a database for searching among 1 million digitized pages of the 20 million pages in this archive
- History of Russia in Photographs, Moscow Multimedia Art Museum – photographs from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
- Prokudin-Gorskii Collection, Library of Congress – the famous collection with some 2,600 early colour photographs taken between 1905 and 1915
Singapore
- Archives Online, National Archives of Singapore – with a section for government records – for example parliamentary papers – and the Straits Settlements Records (1826-1946), Overseas and Private Records
- Singapore Memory Project, National Library Board – with a wide variety of cultural themes, including oral history
South Korea
- Jangseogak Royal Archives, The Academy of Korean Studies, Seoul
- Korean History Database, National Institute of Korean History, Seoul – with digitized chronicles and archival records, interface Korean; see the English introduction
- Korean Provisional Assembly Archives, National Assembly Library of Korea, Seoul – a digital collection for the parliament created in 1919
Taiwan
Tibet
- Tibetan legal manuscripts, University at Buffalo Libraries – ten digitized manuscripts
Turkey
- Ankara Belgeleri Koleksiyonu – Ankara Documents Collection, Suna Kiraç Library, Koç University, Istanbul – nearly six hundred digitized documents from the period up to 1823
- Kütüphane ve Arsiv Baskanligi [Library and Archive Directorate], Türkye Büyük Millet Meclisi [Parliamentary Library], Ankara
- Istanbul Kadi Sicilleri [Qadi Registers], İslâm Araştırmaları Merkezi (ISAM), Üsküdar – a selection of sixty digitized Ottoman court registers; see also the online catalog for some 35,000 registers, and a similar catalog for 6,800 ulema sicillerii with cases heard by Muslim judges
- Digital collections, Koc Üniversitesi, Istanbul – with several library collections, and also archival records (belgeleri), for example the Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha Belgeleri Koleksyonu with digitized documents of the politician Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha (1855-1922); interface Turkish and English
Australia and New Zealand; Oceania
Australia
- Founding Documents: Documenting a Democracy, National Archives of Australia – 110 digitized documents
- Online Collections, Public Record Office Victoria, North Melbourne
- Historical Census and Colonial Data Archive, Australian Data Archive
- Original documents on Aborigines and law, 1797-1840, Macquarie Law School, Sydney
- The Prosecution Project, Griffith University – a database for searching criminal trials
- Australian True Crime, National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) – a selection of audiovisual material about famous crimes of the twentieth century
New Zealand
- DigitalNZ – on this general portal for digital collections you can explore digitized archival collections, too
- KURA Heritage Collections Online, Auckland Council Libraries – with a variety of digitized historical resources, see also this overview of family and local history sources
- Canterbury Earthquake Digital Archive – an archive documenting rhe earthquake of 2010
Oceania
- Paradisec: Pacific And Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures – a project with digitized resources mainly for the Oceanic region, including also Papua New Guinea and Indonesia; multilingual interface
- Papua New Guinea Patrol Reports, University of California at San Diego – some 2,800 government reports between 1912 and 1976, mainly since 1945
- Médiathèque historique de la Polynésie – an international project for a cultural heritage portal for the former French Polynesia, including also archival records
- Ana’ite, La bibliothèque numérique scientifique polynésienne, Université de la Polynésie française, Faa’a, Tahiti – mainly a digital library with also some archival collections and virtual exhibits; interface French, English and Tahitian
- International standards for archival description and arrangement, ICA – for example ISAD(G), ISDIAH and Records in Contexts
- Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Library of Congress
- Rules for Archival Description (RAD), Canadian Council of Archives
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS), Society of American Archivists
- A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology, Society of American Archivists – at the SAA website you can find much more, and do not miss its journal in open access, The American Archivist
- Thesaurus for Graphic Materials (TGM), Library of Congress – in the absence of official terms one does encounter the use of the term manuscripts for archival records based on this thesaurus
- UK Archival Thesaurus – a subject thesaurus – i.e. a structured classification system – for archivists in the United Kingdom
- Archiefzoeker, Eric Hennekam – Hennekam works as an historian for the university hospital in Utrecht; unfortunately he stopped in December 2018 with this database with records for more than 5,000 digital collections from archives, libraries and museums worldwide
- Archivalia – the blog informing you about much more than only news about German archives, with many contributions by everactive archivist Klaus Graf (Archiv der RWTH, Aachen), a treasure trove of useful information about archives, libraries and museums
- Verband deutscher Archivarinnen und Archivaren e.V. (VdA) – the German society of archivists publishes the journal Archivar in cooperation with the Landesarchiv Nordhrein-Westfalen
- Liste deutschsprachiger Archivblogs (2016), Archive 2.0 – a useful overview of German archives in the blogosphere
- Terminologie der Archivwissenschaft, Archivschule Marburg – in alphabetical or thematic order; don’t forget the section with bibliographies
- Glossar ausgewählter archivfachlicher Begriffe, Universitäts- und Stadtbibliothek Frankfurt am Main – a selection of archival terms with succinct definitions
- “Kleine” Archivalienkunde, Staatliche Archive Bayerns – a concise guide to archiving and a number of types in archival records
- Südwestdeutsche Archivalienkunde, Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg – an introduction to German archival practice, with a bibliography
- Aktenkunde: Akten lesen als historische Hilfswissenschaft – a blog about a very typical German approach to governmental acts, with a bibliography about administration and chanceries
- Archiefschool, Hogeschool van Amsterdam – the Dutch school for archivists
- Archiefwiki – a platform of Dutch and Flemish archivists with an interactive map for searching Dutch archives and Dutch and Flemish archival terminology from around 1900 until now – alas since ultimo June 2023 offline
- Vlaamse Vereniging voor Bibliotheek, Archief en Documentatie (VVBAD) – the Flemish society for archivists and librarians
- Association des archivistes français – the French society of archivists; the journal Gazette des Archives is online at the Persée platform (1936-2016)
- The Association of Canadian Archivists – with the journal Archivaria
- Monografie gratuite, Direzione Generale Archivi – a useful overview of online archival publication series for several countries, with a similar overview for archival journals
- Manuales de archivistica, Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte – mainly Spanish archival manuals; there is a simiar overview with dictionaries and glossaries
- Diccionario de terminología archivística, Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte – terminology for Spanish archivists
- Archivistics, Eric Ketelaar – the blog of probably the best-known contemporary Dutch archivist
- Archive Journal – an open access online journal focusing on archival theory and the use of archives in higher education
- Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies (JCAS) – an American online journal in open access on archives and archival practice in current society
- Archief- en Bibliotheekwezen in België / Archives et Bibliothèques de Belgique – not an online journal, but the site offers a multilingual search interface for its contents