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. 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 come 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.
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 in the Netherlands – General sites
- Koninklijke Vereniging van Archivarissen (KVAN) – the Royal Dutch Society of Archivists, the oldest organization of archivists worldwide, with its own journal, now called Archievenblad, the years 1892 to 1940 are also digitized at Delpher; since 2019 the KVAN works in close cooperation with the Brancheorganisatie Archiefinstellingen Nederland (BRAIN)
- Archieven – this portal has a search interface connecting to many Dutch archives, note also the Erfgoedgids, a guide to cultural institutions with archival holdings; interface Dutch, English and German – please note some major archives are not included (Nationaal Archief, the municipal archives of Amsterdam)
- Archieven en archieforganisaties in Nederland [Archives and archival organisations in the Netherlands], Archiefwiki – an interactive map of archives and other relevant organisations
- Nationaal Archief, The Hague – the Dutch national archives, with an online library catalogue and also the Actorenregister, a register of persons and institutions responsible for creating archival fonds, currently only for the NA, Noordhollands Archief and Het Utrechts Archief
- Doorzoek koloniale archieven [Search colonial archives], Gerhard de Kok and Natuonaal Archief – searching in HTR transcribed records of the Dutch East India Company, the West India Company and other colonial institutions; a second way to these recors is available at OpenArch – see also the platform Zoek in transcripties
- Archives, Koninklijke Verzamelingen [Royal Collections], The Hague – with restricted access
- NIOD: Instituut voor oorlogs-, holocaust- en genocidestudies, Amsterdam – formely an archive dealing only with documdentation about the Second World War; interface Dutch and English
- Landelijk Overleg van Provinciale Archiefinspecteurs (LOPAI) – a platform of Dutch provincial archival inspectors
- Kennisnetwerk Informatie en Archief – a new platform for knowledge around Dutch archives and the information world
- Open Data Nederland – a searchable database for data sets in the Netherlands
- Projectenbank, Digitaal Erfgoed Nederland – this was a database for searching digitization projects at archives, libraries, museums and other cultural institutions, but at least there is a Dutch Digital Heritage Network
- Metamorfoze – the Dutch national program for the description, cataloguing, restauration and/or digitization of cultural heritage
- Vele Handen [Many Hands] – more than twenty crowdsourcing projects mainly at Dutch archives for either deciphering or indexing acts, registers and other documents or describing photographic images
- Stadsarchief Amsterdam – the municipal archives
- Search portal, International Institute for Social History, Amsterdam – for searching the collections of the IISH, with well over 900 archival collections
- Atria Kennisinstituut voor Emancipatie en Vrouwengeschiedenis, Amsterdam – long known as the International Information Center for Women’s History, with online finding aids; interface Dutch and English
- Catholic Documentation Center, Nijmegen – the KDC has both a central catalog for searching archival records, audiovisual materials and books and also separate searching possibilities
- Erfgoedcentrum Nederlands Kloosterleven [Center for Dutch Monastic Heritage], Cuijk-St. Agatha – a documentation center with archives and other collections – mainly books, objects from daily life and works of art – of some hundred religious orders and congregations
- Repertorium van Nederlandse zendings- en missiearchieven 1800-1960, Huygens Instituut – a repertory of archival collections concerning Dutch missionaries, both Protestant and Catholic
- Historisch Documentatiecentrum voor het Nederlands Protestantisme (1800-heden), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam – this university was founded by Abraham Kuyper
- Archief- en Documentatiecentrum voor de Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland, Kampen – interface Dutch and English
- Gronings Archiefnet – similar websites exist for the provinces Friesland and Drenthe; until 2016 a portal existed for ten archives in the province Utrecht
- Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid [Institute for Image and Sound], Hilversum – with among other things online finding aids for television emissions and radio broadcasts
- Bedrijfsarchieven Register Nederland [Dutch Company Archives Register], Nederlands Economisch-Historisch Archief (NEHA), Amsterdam – alas this service has been discontinued – the NEHA works closely with the IISH
- Platform Familiearchieven – a platform with attention for family archives and other private collections, with a very useful repertory, bibliography and web directory
- Platform Particuliere Archieven [Platform for Private Archives], KDC, Nijmegen
- Special collections in Dutch libraries, Bibliopolis, Royal Library, The Hague – a database for searching both special book collections and archival collections
- Digitaal Repertorium, Special Collections, Utrecht University Library – an online repertory for the manuscript and archival collections
- Wegwijzer Archieven Tweede Wereldoorlog – a former guide to Dutch archives and materials about and from the Second World War created by the NIOD and the Nationaal Archief; see now the portal Netwerk Oorlogsbronnen [Network War Sources] with an overview of institutions with relevant holdings
- Overzichten van de archieven en verzamelingen in de openbare archiefbewaarplaatsen in Nederland [Overviews of the archival collections in the Dutch public record offices], Digital Library for Dutch Literature – a digitized version of most of the 14 volumes for the Dutch provinces – vol. 1 and 2 for Drenthe and Gelderland are missing – the National Archives, and also the municipal archive of Amsterdam [vol. 8] in this exemplary series published between 1979 and 1992 by L.M.T.L. Hunstinx, F.C.J. Ketelaar, H.J.H.A.G. Metselaars, J.J. Temminck and H. Uil
- Nationaal Register Webarchieven, Dutch Digital Heritage Network – a platform for finding archived websites
- Datasetregister, Netwerk Digitaal Erfgoed and Nationaal Archief – a subdomain of the Dutch Digital Heritage Network for datasets concerning cultural heritage
For some subjects in Dutch history separate guides to archival sources have been published, many of them also accessible online at the Huygens Institute/ING, here a selection:
- Gids voor de landsheerlijke archieven van Gelre, Holland, Zeeland en het Sticht. Bestuurlijke, economische en sociale geschiedenis vóór 1500, M.J. van Gent and M.-Ch. Le Bailly (eds.) (The Hague 2002) – a guide to archival collections concerning the administrative, economic and social history of four Dutch regions before 1500
- Theo Thomassen, Instrumenten van de macht. De Staten-Generaal en hun archieven 1576-1796 (first version thesis Amsterdam, 2009; revised version, 2015) – a voluminous but indispensable introduction to the archives of the States-General in the Early Modern period, and a great introduction to the government and politics of the Dutch Republic
- Joke Roelevink, Bestuur en administratie van de Bataafs Franse tijd 1795-1813 (The Hague 2012) – a web version of a guide to the French period in Dutch history
- Jos Gabriëls, Koninkrijk in wording. Een toegang tot de jaren 1813–1815 – a portal to resources concerning a period of change after the French period
- Gids voor de archieven van de ministeries en de Hoge Colleges van Staat 1813-1940, F.J.M. Otten (ed.) (The Hague 2004) – a guide to the archives of ministries and a number of special institutions
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 nutshell guides to libraries and archives in selected cities, published in French, Spanish and English by this online journal since 2006, some of them excellent, others 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
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, Bogota
- 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 archves, 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
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 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
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.
Georgia
- National Archives of Georgia, Tbilisi – interface Georgian and English
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
- 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
- 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
- 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
Europe
- Archives Portal Europe – a growing overview of archival institutions in Europe and a searchable database for online finding aids, allowing also thematic searches; there is a blog
- Collective European Digital Archive Infrastructure (Cendari) – a project for an European archival directory, with also a number of research guides, in particular for the First World War and medieval history
- Archive in der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Alpenländer (ARGE) – archives in the Alpine region; interface German and Italian
- ICARUS – International Center for Archival Research – a consortium of 160 archives in Europe and the United States of America
- Historical research in Europe: a guide to archives and libraries, University of Wisconsin – yet another inactive resource (since September 2018); archived copy, 2015, Internet Archive
- Guide to European and UK Archives, Libraries and Research Centres, Columbia University Library – strong on British archives and on printed guides and repertories
- OACES Archival Guide Book, Oxford – summary guides created by students to archives and libraries in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine, and also for Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada
- 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
- East and South East European Archives: A web guide, Universität München
- EHRI Portal, European Holocaust Research Infrastructure – a portal for archival research about the genocide on Jewish people during the Second World War; interface English, French, German and Polish – the International Research Portal for Records Related to Nazi-Era Cultural Property is one of the EHRI projects
- Evidence! Europe reflected in archives – a virtual exhibition with archival documents from seven cities (Bergen, Bologna, Cracow, Helsinki, Prague, Reykjavik and Santiago de Compostela)
- Novgorod-Finland, National Archives of Finland and State Archives of the Novgorod Region – a project of two archives on shared history; interface Finnish, Russian and English
- Vademecum-Reihe, Bundesstiftung zur Aufbearbeitung der SED-Diktatur – a series of guides (PDF) for archives, libraries, museums, research institutes and memory sites concerning the Cold War and Communist regimes for countries in Eastern Europe (Albania Bulgaria, Poland, Roumania, Slovakia, Moldavia and Ukraine), Scandinavia, Spain (Civil War and Franco’s dictature), and also Georgia
- International Tracing Service Arolsen – the site of the ITS, an organisation with its own library and archive, working for the search of displaced and killed civilians during and immediately after the Second World War
- Baltic Connections: Uncovering the common past of the Baltic Sea countries (1450-1800) – an international project for an online archival guide
- Historical Archives of the European Union, European University Institute, Florence
- Historical Archives, European Parliament, Luxembourg – interface French, English and German
- Historical Archives, European Commission, Brussels – interface French, English and German
- Historical Archives, Court of Justice of the European Union, Luxembourg
- Topothek – a platform for local digital collections of private archives, starting in Austria; interface German and English
- European Diary Archives and Collections (EDAC)
- Repertorium Alborum Amicorum (RAA): Internationales Verzeichnis von Stammbüchern und Stammbuchfragmenten in öffentlichen und privaten Sammlungen – a database and digital archive for the genre of the Early Modern alba amicorum, showing both poetry and networks
- filmarchives online – a portal with a meta-catalogue for searching films in major European film archives; there is an extensive links section
- i.d.a. – Dachverband deutschsprachiger Frauen / Lesbenarchive, -bibliotheken und -dokumentationsstellen – a consortium of institutions for women’s history in Austria, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Switzerland; interface German and English
- WINE – Women’s Information Network Europe
- The Documentary Heritage of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, UNESCO and Archives of Belarus – a guide in Russian to archival holdings concerning this vanished country in archives and libraries in Austria, Belarus, Germany, Lithuania, Poland (in Polish), Russia, Sweden, Ukraine and Vatican City
- Nuohtti – Search portal for Sámi archival materials – an online repertory for (digitized) archival materials concerning the Sámi; interface in five languages
Albania
- Drejtoria e Përgjithshme e Arkivave [General Directorate of Archives], Tirana – the national archives
- Autoriteti për Informimin mbi Dokumentet e Ish-Sigurimit të Shtetit [Authority for Information on Former State Security Documents], Tirana – an independent archival organisation which guards and describes these documents
- Jonila Godile, Vademecum Albania. A guide to archives, research institutions, libraries, associations, museums and sites of memory (Berlin 2022; online, PDF, 5,2 MB)
Andorra
- Arxius i Gestió de la Documentació. Arxiu Nacional d’Andorra
Austria
- Archivinformationssystem, Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Vienna – the search system of the Austrian national archives
- Archivregister, Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Vienna – an overview of Austrian archives
- Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv, Vienna – the municipal and regional archives
- Archivnet: Österreichs Archive Online – a central database for searching in a number of Austrian archives
- Parlamentsarchiv, Republik Österreich, Vienna
- Verzeichniss der künstlerischen, wissenschaftlichen und kulturpolitischen Nachlässe in Österreich, Österreichisches Bibliotheksverbund – searching for papers of artists, scholars and other persons important for Austria’s cultural and political life in the holdings of archives, libraries and museums
- Handschriften und Nachlässe, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna – the catalogue for manuscripts and personal papers
- Nachlassverzeichnis, Wienbibliothek, Vienna – an overview of archival collections in this library
- Kirchenarchive – a portal with finding aids of diocesan archives and archives of religious orders and individual monasteries
- Sammlung Frauennachlässe, Institut für Geschichte, Universität Wien – a study centre with archival collections from women
Belarus
- Национальный архив Республики Беларусь (Nacionalnyj archiv Respubliki Belarus), Minsk – interface Belarussian, Russian and English
- Archives of Belarus – a guide to archives in Belarus, interface Belarussian, Russian and English
Belgium
- State Archives in Belgium – the multilingual portal of the Belgian state archives, with a separate portal for searching archival collections
- Patricia Van den Eeckhout and Guy Vanthemsche (eds.) Bronnen voor de studie van het hedendaagse België,19e-21e eeuw [Sources for the study of modern Belgium, 19th-21st centuries] (3rd ed., 2 vol., Brussels 2017) – the Royal Commission for History offers this guide also online (version 2009), with due attention to collections in archives and libraries
- Archieven en bibliotheken, Heuristiek, Ghent University – a useful overview of Belgian archives and research libraries
- Het Archief, VIAA – a portal for searching Flemish audiovisual material concerning culture and government
- Archief van Brussel – the municipal archive of Brussels
- Archief, Vlaams Parlement, Brussels – the archive of the parliament for Flanders
- Archief. Belgische Senaat, Brussels – interface Dutch and French
- Archief Buitenlandse Zaken, Brussels – the diplomatic archives; interface Dutch, French, German and English
- Felixarchief, Antwerp – the municipal archive of Antwerp houses many rich and interesting archival collections
- Archiefwijzer: Archieven in Vlaanderen – a guide to all kind of archives in Flanders
- Archiefbank Vlaanderen – an online guide to private archives and heritage collections in Flanders, now called Archiefpunt; interface Dutch, French and English
- Archives régionales de Wallonie – the search portal of the regional archives in the Francophone part of Belgium
- Centre d’archives Mundaneum, Mons – the archival collections of the Mundaneum concern movements such as anarchism, pacifism and feminism, but also Otlet and De la Fontaine, pioneers of modern documentation; interface French, Dutch and English
- Kadoc: Documentatie- en Onderzoekscentrum voor Religie, Cultuur en Samenleving, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven – a research centre for Catholic cultural heritage with a rich library and many archival collections
- Archives du monde catholique (Arca), Université Catholique Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve
- Evadoc: Protestants-Evangelisch Archief- en Documentatiecentrum, Leuven – in the same building as the Kadoc is its Protestant counterpart
- Amsab-Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, Ghent – an institute for social history research with archival collections
- Liberaal Archief, Ghent – with also digital collections
- AVG-Carhif – Archief- en Onderzoekcentrum voor Vrouwengeschiedenis, Brussels – an archive for women’s history; interface Dutch, French and English
- Cegesoma, Rijksarchief, Brussels – this documentaion centre for the history of the Second World War and social history is since 2016 part of the Belgian national archives; interface Dutch, French and English
Bosnia-Hercegovina
- Arhiv Bosne i Hercegovine, Sarajevo – the national archives, with an overview of other archives; interface Bosnian, Hercegovinian, Serbian and English
- Historijski Arhiv Sarajevo
- Gazi Husrey Bekova Biblioteka, Sarajevo – with an archive of the islamic community and Ottoman archives; interface Bosnian, English, Turkish and Arabic
Bulgaria
- Archives State Agency, Republic of Bulgaria – the website of the national archives agency; interface Bulgarian and English
Croatia
- Nacionalni Arhivski informacijski sustav, Hrvatski državni arhiv, Zagreb – the search portal of the Croatian national archive, also for other archives in Croatia
- Archives in Croatia, Hrvatski državni arhiv – an overview of Croatian state archives
- Državni arhiv u Dubrovniku [State Archive in Dubrovnik] – in this municipal archive are many records of the medieval republic Ragusa
- Drzavni arhiv u Zadru (State Archives in Zadar) – known in Italian as the Archivio di Stato di Zara, with rich holdings for Venetian and Dalmatian history; interface Croatian and English; the online guide Vodic drzavnog arhiva u Zadru can only be viewed in Croatian
Cyprus
- Κρατικό Αρχείο [Kratiko Archeio] – the national archives of Cyprus; interface Greek and English
Czech Republic
- Archivní fondy a sbírky v České republice (Archives and archival collections in the Czech Republic) – an overview in Czech, English, German and French, with among the archives the Národni archiv [National Archives], Prague (website in Czech and English)
- Archival directory, Ceska archivni spolecnost [Czech Society of Archivists] – a concise overview of state archives and other archives; interface Czech – also in German at the blog Aktenkunde : Archive in der Tschechischen Republik
- Badatelna – a portal for the Czech state archives, the national library, the museum for Czech literature, and the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the university of Prague
- Archiv hlavního mesta Praha (Prague Municipal Archive) – interface Czech and English
- Moravý zemský archiv v Brne (Moravian Regional Archive), Brno
- Archiv bespecnosnich slozek [Archive of the Security Services], Prague – this archive has holdings from security services and departments during the Communist period; interface Czech and English
- Vademecum Contemporary History Czech Republic / Soudobych Déjin Česka Republica, Oldřich Tůma, Jitka Svobodová and Ulrich Mählert (eds.) (Prague-Berlin 2005; online, PDF, 0,8 MB)
Denmark
- Daisy, Riksarkivet – the search portal of the Danish national archives
- Københavns Stadsarkiv, Copenhagen – the municipal archive
- Arkivvejviser, Arkibas – a database for searching Danish archives, in particular for local history
- Starbas.net – a portal for searching the online inventories of a number of communal archives
- Diplomatarium Danicum – the online version contains only charters from the fifteenth century; interface Danish, introductions in four languages – the Københavns Diplomatarium, Oluf Nielsen (ed.) (10 vol., Copenhagen, 1872-1887) has been digitized at Eremit
Estonia
- Ravhusarhiiv, Tallinn – the Estonian national archive; interface Estonian and English
- Estica, Ravhusarhiiv, Tallinn – a database concerning archival records for Estonian history in other countries, such as Germany, Latvia and Russia; interface Estonian
Faroer
-
Tjóðsskjalasavnið [Faroese National Archives], Tórshavn
Finland
- Kansallisarkisto (National Archives), Helsinki – interface Finnish, Swedish and English
- Finna – a search portal for archives, libraries and museums in Finland; interface Finnish, Swedish and English
- Arkistojen Portti – an archival wiki for Finnish archives; interface Finnish, Swedish and Russian
France
- FranceArchives: Portail national des archives – a general site about French archives with many thematic dossiers, a search interface for inventories and for example a database for searching all kind of archives in France
- Archives nationales de France – with locations in Paris, Fontainebleau and Pierrefitte-sur-Seine; finding aids can be consulted in the Salle des inventaires virtuelle; interface French, English and Spanish; the journal Mémoire d’avenir (e-zine and PDF) aims at a general audience
- Calames – a portal for the archival collections and libraries of French research institutes; you can search in the advanced search mode for digitized items; interface French and English
- Archives et manuscrits, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris – the search portal for archival collections and manuscripts at the BnF and the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal
- Manuscrits et archives, Catalogue collectif de France – searching in four national catalogs for manuscripts and archives
- Répertoire des ressources documentaires du ministère de la Culture – a browsable guide, also available as PDF, with information about the main French archives, libraries, museums and centers for specific education (version 2017)
- Archives, Assemblée Nationale, Paris
- Archives diplomatiques, Paris-La Courneuve and Nantes
- Service historique de la Défense – the archives of the French armed forces, with its main location in Vincennes
- Archives nationales du monde du travail, Roubaix
- Centre des Archives Économiques et Financières, Savigny-le-Temple
- Archives de Paris – the city archive of Paris
- Archives départementales d’Indre-et-Loire, Tours – a regional archive used by Tocqueville for his study L’ancien régime et la Révolution (1856)
- Archives départementales du Nord (ADN), Lille – this archive has rich holdings for Dutch and Belgian history
- Archives judiciaires d’Ancien Régime, Fontes Historiae Iuris, Université Lille – formerly there was here guidance to archival records about three institutions, among them the parlements for Flandre and Normandy – the older Guide des recherches dans les fonds judiciaires de l’Ancien Régime, M. Antonie et alii (eds.) (Paris 1958; online, PDF) remains valuable
The Revue de l’Institut français d’histoire en Allemagne 3 (2014) is a special on Geschichte machen in Frankreich, with an article by Florence de Peyronnet-Dryden and Matthias Nuding on ‘Archive in Frankreich’. At the portal Criminocorpus you can consult a web version or PDF of the Guide des archives judiciaires et pénitentiaires en France (1800-1958) by Jean-Claude Farcy (1992). The archival guides by Andreas Wilkens, Archivführer Paris 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Zentrale Bestände zu Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft in Archiven und Bibliotheken (Sigmaringen 1997) and Wolfgang Hans Stein, Inventar von Quellen zur deutschen Geschichte in Pariser Archiven und Bibliotheken : Band 2: Archive im Bereich des Verteidigungsministeriums, Archive des Außen- und Finanzministeriums, Stadtpariser Archive und Bibliotheken (Koblenz-Stuttgart 2002) have been digitized by the German Historical Institute in Paris.
Germany
- Archivportal-D, Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek – a very good overview with many useful filters and sections with access to online inventories, inetreface German and English; there is a useful glossary of archival terms; note also the Themenportal Weimarer Republik, an extensive overview of regional and thematic archival portals, and the portal Wiedergutmachung on repairs for damage caused by the Nazi regime
- Bundesarchiv – the German national archives with its main center in Koblenz; interface German and English; since 2013 the Bundesarchiv publishes its own journal Forum (PDF)
- Deutsche Dienststelle für die Benachrichtigung der nächsten Angehörigen von Gefallenen der ehemaligen deutschen Wehrmacht (WASt), Berlin-Borsigwalde – between 1939 and 2019 this archival service provided information about fallen German soldiers; now part of the Bundesarchiv; interface German, English and French
- Berliner Archive – a database for searching among more than 100 archives in Berln; interface German
- Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin-Dahlem – with an interesting guide by Jürgen Kloosterhuis on German administration, Amtliche Aktenkunde der Neuzeit. Ein hilfswissenschafliches Kompendium
- Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amts, Berlin – the archive of the ministry of foreign affairs, for 1870-1945, the DDR (1949-1990) and the Bundesrepublik from 1949 onwards; interface German and English
- Parlamentsarchiv des Deutschen Bundestages, Berlin
- Landesarchiv Berlin – the new form of the municipal archive, Berlin is one of the Bundesländer, hence it is a Landesarchiv
- Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv, Potsdam
- Archiv der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin-Dahlem – the archives of this organization for scientific research
- Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv – a special archive with branches in fifteen cities concerning the legacy of the DDR secret service
- Andere Archive, Bundesstiftung zur Aufbearbeitung der SED-Diktatur – a research institute with its own archive and library points in this guide to other archives with materials concerning the former DDR – see also this page of the Bundesarchiv, Archivgut der SED und des FDGB
- Archive verschiedenere Bewegungen, Archivschule Marburg – an overview – only in German – of a number of archives from a variety of social and political movements
- Zentrale Datenbank Nachlässe, Bundesarchiv – there is an overview at the German Wikisource of digitized personal papers, for example for Karl von Amira and Friedrich Carl von Savigny
- Savigny-Datenbank, Universitätsbibliothek Marburg – a database with in particular digitized letters to and from Friedrich Carl von Savigny (1779-1861)
- Kalliope Verbundkatalog, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – a database for searching personal papers and publishers’ archives in German archives, libraries and museums; interface German and English
- Kallias Katalog, Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach – an archive with not only literary papers, but also papers of scholars and a section Global Archives; interface German and English
- Wirtschaftsarchivportal – company archives and archives for economic history
- Kirchliche Archive – with portals for the Lutheran church and the Catholic church
- Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Munich and Berlin – an institution with an important library and archival holdings concerning twentieth-century Germany
- Archivführer Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte, Fachhochschule Potsdam – a research guide for German colonial history, with a focus on archival records, maps and holding institutions; there is also space for learning the Kurrentschrift; interface German, English and French
- FFBIZ: Das feministische Archiv – Sammeln-Bewahren-Erinnern, Berlin
- Archive in Baden-Württemberg – compare the overview at the LEO cultural heritage portal
- Staatliche Archive Bayern – with the Findmitteldatenbank for finding online finding aids; interface in five languages
- Archive in Bayern – a portal to more than 900 archives
- Archivinformationssystem Hessen
- Archivportal Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Universität Greifswald
- Archivinformationssystem Niedersachsen
- Archive in Nordrhein-Westfalen
- Historisches Archiv der Stadt Köln
- Landesarchiv Schleswig-Holstein – see also the Archivführer Schleswig-Holstein. Archive und ihre Bestände (Hamburg 2011) (PDF, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg)
- APERTUS, Virtueller Lesesaal der staatlichen Archiven in Rheinland-Pfalz
- Archivportal für den Südwesten – archives in Rheinland-Pfalz and the Saarland
- Archivportal Thüringen
- Archivwesen, Sächsisches Staatsarchiv
- Sächsische Gerichtsbücher, Sächsisches Staatsarchiv – indexes for 22000 (!) judicial registers from the fifteenth to the mid-nineteenth century
- Archive in Sachsen-Anhalt (Archivführer 2014) (PDF)
- Archiv der sozialen Demokratie (AdsD), Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn – collections documenting social movements and the German socialist party
- Quellen zur Gerichtsbarkeit Kaiser Friedrich III. (1440-1493), Ralf Mitsch and Holger Vogelmann, Regesta Imperii – an online finding aid to late medieval arbitral commissions
- Datenbank zu Entscheidungsprotokollen des Reichskammergericht, Max-Planck-Institut für europäische Rechtsgeschichte, Frankfurt am Main – a downloadable database created by Anette Bauman for the Gesellschaft für Reichskammergerichtsforschung concerning 51 manuscripts and registers from 1524 to 1627 (PDF, 14 MB)
- Deutsche Städtebücher (Index Librorum Civitatum), Universität Halle-Wittenberg – a project for a repertory of German municipal registers from the thirteenth century onwards, kept in 500 archives and libraries, with various useful filters and bibliographies; interface German, English and Latin: ite et videte!
- Fürst Thurn und Taxis Hofbibliothek und Zentralarchiv, Regensburg – the library and archives of a family with a long tradition, famous for the postal service
- Niklas Luhmann-Archiv, Universität Bielefeld – the scientific papers and the card indexes of this German lawyer and sociologist who created an influential system theory; the archive is being digitized
A post by Mareike König (Deutsches Historisches Institut, Paris), Travailler dans les archives allemands at Germano-Fil contains a nutshell guide and a wealth of relevant web links. In 2018 Frank Bischoff contributed a fine guide to German archives at Clio-online. The Bodleian Library in Oxford has a fine guide to archival research in Germany. eStudies offer a Tutorium Archivarbeit. On Perspectivia.net F. Bretschneider and J. Guilbaud contributed ‘Les archives en Allemagne’ as part of the scholarly guide Faire l’histoire en Allemagne (2011). For archives in the DDR the guide to DDR history by Henrik Bispinck for Clio-online (2018) is helpful, as are the guides at this platform for other periods (Epochen) in German history.
Greece
- Ελληνική Αρχειακή Εταιρεία [Greek Archival Society] – with an overview of archives in Greece and other institutions for cultural heritage
- Εθνικό Ευρετήριο Αρχείων (Greek Archives Inventory) – much more than just a directory of archival institutions; interface Greek and English
- Γενικά Αρχεία του Κράτου [Genika Archeia tou Kratou], Athens – the Greek national archive
- Ιστορικού Αρχείου της Τράπεζας της Ελλάδος [Historical Archives of the Bank of Greece], Athens – interface Greek and English
- Ιστορικό Αρχείο Μακεδονίας [Istoriko Archeio Macedonias, Historical Archive of Macedonia], Thessaloniki – the archive for the region Macedonia
- Ιστορικό Αρχείο Κρήτης [Historical Archive of Crete], Chania, Crete
- Αρχεία Σύγχρονης Κοινωνικής Ιστορίας [Contemporary Social History Archives], Athens – interface Greek and English
Greenland
- The Archive, Nunatta Katersugaasivia Allagaateqarfialu / Greenland National Museum & Archives, Nuuk – with also some digitized collections
Hungary
- Archivum: Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár (National Archives of Hungary)
- Archives of Hungary, Hungarian Archives Portal – a directory of archives; interface Hungarian, English and German
- Budapest Fóváros Levéltára (Budapest City Archive)
Iceland
- θjóðskjalasafn Íslands / National Archives of Iceland, Reykjavik – with also an overview of heradsskjalasofn, regional archives; interface Icelandic, Danish and English
- Einkaskjalasafn – samskrá yfir einkaskjalasöfn á Íslandi – the search portal of a number of Icelandic archives
- Borgarskjalasafn Reykjavíkur (City Archives Reykjavik)
Ireland
- Irish Archives Resource – a portal for archives and archival collections in Ireland
- The National Archives of Ireland, Dublin
- Dublin City Archives
- Manuscripts and Archives, Trinity College Dublin – a wide variety of collections
- UCD Archives, University College Dublin
- Archives and Records Association UK and Ireland
- Learn About Archives, ARA Ireland – a portal introducing to the world of archives, with documents and a selection of relevant links
- Research And Special Collections Available Locally (RASCAL) – a database for searching collections with relevance for the humanities and social sciences in Irish archives, libraries and museums
- Catholic Archives Catalogue – searching in archival collections of Catholic religious orders and congregations
- Military Archives, Defence Forces Ireland – interface Irish and English
Italy
- Sistema Guida generale degli Archivi di Stato italiani – a guide to the major provincial archives directed by the Direzione Generale Archivi, you can also download PDF’s for individual state archives, including the Archivio Centrale dello Stato, see also the Sistema archivistico nazionale (SAN), the SIAS portal for inventories of the Archivi di Stato, and the similar portal SIUSA for searching all kind of archives, with thematic and regional subsites (interface Italian and English)
- Biblioteca digitale, Direzione generali per gli Archivi – a very useful collection of digitized guides and source editions, for example the Liber iurium of Genua and archival guides, for example the Guida degli Archivi diocesani d’italia, vol. I (1990) (PDF)
- Territori: il sistema italiano dei catasti e della cartografia storica – a guide to census records and historical maps in Italian archives; alas since 2019 only partially functioning
- Rete di archivi per non dimenticare – a portal for archival collections concerning the struggles against violence, terrorism and maffiosi
- Archivi della Musica – in a country with such a rich musical history you expect a portal for archives with music in their holdings
- Archivi di famiglie e di persone. Materiali per una guida – an online version of this guide for family archives and personal papers; I, Abruzzo-Liguria, II: Lombardy to Sicily, and III: Tuscany to Venice
- BEweb 2020: Portale dei beni culturali ecclesiastici, Chiesa Cattolica – a portal to ecclesiastical heritage collections, including archival collections; interface in five languages
- Censimento delle raccolte fotografiche in Italia – photographic collections
- Archivi della Scienza – a portal for finding scientific arfchival collections, with biibliographies and finding aids; interface Italian and English
- Censimento degli archivi inquisitoriali in Italia – a census of inquisitorial archives in Italy; interface Italian and English
- Archivi Storici Toscani – a portal to municipal archives (archivi comunali) in Tuscany
- Archivi in Toscana – a second, wider portal for archives in Tuscany
- Cataloghi, inventari e archivi, SIDFA – a portal for library catalogs, archives and archival inventories in the area around Florence
- Strumenti, Archivio di Stato, Florence – guides, an overview of collections, information about the catasti, a database for Florentine heraldry and external links
- Associazione Archivi Storici delle Famiglie, Florence – eight Florentine family archives; interface Italian and English
- Gondi-Medici Business Records, University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Philadelphia – a wide variation of documents, moslty from the fifteenth to the end of the seventeenth century; nearly 200 documents have been digitized
- Italian family papers, 1200s-1900s, University of Pennsylvania Libraries – with documents from several Italian towns; some parts of these papers have been digitized
- SIAR Veneto: La Rete di Archivi in Veneto – a portal for archives in Venice and the Veneto region
- Archivi e centri di documentazione, Città di Venezia – an overview of archives and documentation centers with a multilingual interface
- Archivio generale, Città di Venezia – the municipal archive holds materials from 1806 onwards about Venice and the former adjacent communities
- Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Venice – the state archive for Venice, with an extensive online guide; interface Italian and English
- Ecclesiae Venetae, Archivio di Stato di Venezia – ecclesiastical archives in the city Venice and the Veneto; interface Italian and English
- Archivi storici, LombardiaBeniCulturali – the large section for archives on this portal for cultural heritage in the province Lombardy
- La Statale Archivi, Università degli Studi di Milano – the archives of this university
- IBC Emilia-Romagna – the portal for archives and archival collections in this Italian region
- Fondi nel web, Biblioteca dell’Archiginnasio, Bologna – a database for finding nearly 300 archival collections in this municipal library
- Percorsi negli archivi ebraici del Piemonte – Jewish archives in Piemonte
- Archivio storico, Fondazione Banca di Napoli – the archive for eight banks from the sixteenth century onwards; interface Italian and English
- RInASCo: Recupero Inventari degli Archivo Storici Comunali, Regione Lazio – a project for collections of municipal archives in Lazio
- Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Rome – the Italian national archive, with a subdomain a guide to its holdings and also a quick overview in a tree structure
- Archivio di Stato di Roma – the Roman state archive
- Archivio Storico Capitolino – the municipal archive of Rome
- Archivio storico di Quirinale, Presidenza della Repubblica, Rome
- Archivio storico della Camera dei Deputati, Rome
- Patrimonio dell’Archivio storico, Senato della Republica, Rome – online inventories
- Archivio Storico Diplomatico, “Farnesina”, Ministero degli Affari Esteri , Rome – the archive of the ministry of foreign affairs
- Fondazione Gramsci, Rome – the archives of this foundation do not only have holdings concerning Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) and the Italian communist party, but also cultural archives
- Archivio storico de Propaganda Fide, Congregazione per l’Evangelizzazione dei Popoli, Rome – one of the most important religious archives of the catholic church; multilingual interface
- Archivio storico, Penitenzieria Apostolica, Rome – the archive of one of the papal courts
- Archivum Generale Ordinis Praedicatorum, Rome – the archive of the Dominican Order, you can consult online the database with finding aids; multilingual interface
- Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu, Rome – the central archive of the Jesuit Order; interface Italian and English
Kosovo
- Agjencia Shtetërore e Arkivave të Kosovës [National Agency for the Archives of Kosovo], Pristina – interface Albanian, English and Serbian
Latvia
- Latvijas Nacionālais Arhīus, Riga – the national archives; interface Latvian, English and Russian
Liechtenstein
- Landesarchiv, Vaduz
Lithuania
- Lietuvos vyriausiojo archyvaro tamyba (Office of the Ltithuanian State Archivist) – the national archival service with information about all Lithuanian archives; interface Lithuanian and English
Luxembourg
- Archives Nationales de Luxembourg – with a search engine; interface French and German
- Archives municipales, Luxembourg – the municipal archives, with online inventories; interface French
Macedonia
- Државен архив на Република Македонија [National Archive of the Republic Macedonia], Skopje – with some digitized documents from the Ottoman period
Malta
- Arkivji Nazzjonali ta’ Malta, La Valletta – the national archives
- Archdiocese of Malta Archives
- Notarial Archives, La Valletta – interface English and Maltese
Moldovia
- Serviciul de Stat de Arhiv al Republicii Moldova, Chisinau – the Moldovian national archival service
Montenegro
- Državi arhiv Crne Gore [State Archives of Montenegro], Cetinje
Norway
- Arkivverket, Oslo – the Norwegian national archives; interface Norwegian and English
- Arkivportalen – a portal to archives in Norway with a searchable database
- Norges Dokumentarv, Arkivverket – Norwegian archival records in the Unesco Memory of the World register
- Byarkivet Oslo
- Bergen Byarkiv (Municipal Archive Bergen)
Poland
- Archnet: Naukowy Portal Archiwalny – a portal site for archives in Poland; interface Polish
- Archiwum Glowne Akt Dawnych w Warsawie (Central State Archives, Warsaw) – the Polish national archives; interface Polish and English
- Archiwum Panstwowe w Warszawie (City Archive, Warsaw) – interface Polish and English
- Archives in Poland, Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America, New York – an overview of archives in Poland
- Naczelna Dyrekcja Archiwów Państwowych (Central Direction Polish State Archives)
- Szukaj w archiwach, Archiwa Panstwowa – the central search portal of the Polish state archives; interface Polish, Russian, Engosh and German
- Archiwa Spoleczne (Social Archives), Warsaw – an initiative for a new form of archiving close to people and organizations
- Europejskie Centrum Solidarnosci / European Solidarity Center, Gdansk – an archive about the Solidarnosc labour union and the opposition against communism between 1970 and 1989; interface Polsih and English
- Archiwa Rodzinne Niepoldleglej [Independent Family Archives] – a project to support private family archives
-
Vademecum Zeitgeschichte Polen / Historii Najnowszei w Polsce, Krzysztof Ruchniewicz et alii (eds.) (Wroclaw-Berlin-Leipzig 2004; online, PDF, 1 MB) – a guide to archives, ibraries, museums and other institutions, in German and Polish
Portugal
- Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo, Lissabon – note the use of virtual exhibitions for various themes, with often a concise bibliography and links to digitized important documents
- Rede Portuguesa de Arquivos – the portal for public archives in Portugal; you can choose archives from the dropdown menu of the search field in the top right corner
- Portal Português de Arquivos – searching in archival collections held by 32 archives in Portugal
- Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, Lissabon – an archive with collections for the overseas history of the Portuguese colonial empire
- Arquivo Histórico Parlamentar, Assembleia da República, Lissabon – the historical archive of Portugal’s parliament, with a separate search portal
- Arquivo Municipal de Lisboa – the city archive of Lissabon
- Outros sites, Tombo: Registos paroquiais portugueses para genealogia – this page of a genealogical website leads you to many archives in Portugal and their digital collections
- Invent.arq: Inventários de arquivos de família, sécs. XV-XIX: de gestão e prova a memórias perdidas, repensando o arquivo moderno, Universidade de Nova Lisboa – a project around family archives in the medieval and Early Modern period
- Arquivos, Casa Comum and Fundação Mario Soares, Lissabon – inventories and digitized materials not only for Portugal’s history in the twentieth century, but also for its colonial empire
- Arquivo de História Social, Universidade de Lisboa
- Centro de Documentação 25 de Abril, Universidade de Coimbra – a research center focusing on the return of democracy in 1974, with archival collections and a digital library
Roumania
- Arhivele Nationale ale României, Bucharest – the Roumanian national archive, with an interactive map to find 42 branches; interface Roumanian and English
- Arhiva diplomaticâ, Ministerul Afacerilor Externe, Bucharest – interface Roumanian, English and French
-
Vademecum Contemporary History Romania. A Guide through Archives, Research Institutions, Libraries, Societies, Museums and Memorial Places, Stejarel Olaru and Georg Herbstritt (eds.) (Berlin-Bucarest 2004; online, PDF, 0.6 MB)
San Marino
- Archivio di Stato della Repubblica di San Marino – interface Italian and English
Serbia
- Arhivi u Srbiji (Network of Archives in Serbia), Arhiv Srbije (National Archives of Serbia) – with a multilingual interface
- Istorijki Arhiv Beograda (Historical Archives of Belgrade) – interface Russian, Serbian and English
- Историјски архив града Новом Саду [Historijki Arhiv Grada Novo Sada, Historical archive of the town Novi Sad]
- Arhiv Jugoslavije, Belgrad – an archive concerning former Yugoslavia; interface Russian, Serbian and English
Slovakia
- Slovenský národný archív, Bratislava – the Slovakian national archives
- Archív mesta Bratislavy – the municipal archive of Bratislava
- Archívy, Ministerstvo vnútra SR – an overview of archives in Slovakia
Slovenia
- Arhiv Republik Slovenije, Ljubljana – the Slovenian national archives, with an overview of other archives in Slovenia; interface Slovenian and English
- Zgodovinski arhiv Ljubljana (State Archive Ljubljana)
- SIRAnet – a search portal of six Slovenian archives; interface in nine languages
- Pokrajinski arhiv Maribor [Regional Archives Maribor]- interface Slovenian, Hungarian, English and German
- Pokrajinski arhiv Koper / Archivio Regionale di Capodistria, Koper – this archive holds also materials concerning Triest and Istria in the Venetian and Italian period
Spain
- Censo-Guía de Archivos de España e Iberoamérica – a searchable database for archives in Spain and Latin-America
- Centro de Información Documental de Archivos – the archives portal of the Spanish ministry of Culture and Education, with for example the database Guía de fuentes documentales de archivos and concise guides for a number of state archives, Guía de Archivos y Centros Estatales (PDF’s)
- Guías de Archivos, Ministerio de Cultura y Deporta – a choice with links to online guides to several types of archives, some of them offering a general introduction
- 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
- Archivo Histórico Nacional (AHN), Madrid
- La Guerra de Independencia a través de los fondos del Archivo Histórico Nacional – a portal concerning a pivotal period in Spanish history (1808-1814)
- Archivo General de la Administración (AGA), Alcalà de Henares – the archival centre with the most recent archival collections
- Archivos de la Comunidad de Madrid – a portal to the city archives of Madrid
- Archivo de Villa, Ayuntamiento Madrid – the city archives of Madrid
- Archivo Histórico del Banco de España, Madrid
- Archivo del Congreso de Diputados, Madrid – the parliamentary archives; interface Spanish and English
- Archivo General de Palacio, Madrid – an archive with royal archival collections, including those of some religious institutions under royal patronage
- Archivo Histórico de Protocolos, Madrid – in Spain regions and cities have special archives for notarial registers, here from 1504 to 1917
- Centro Documental de la Memoria Histórica (CDMH), Salamanca – this archive holds documents concerning the Spanish civil war
- Archivo de la Real Chancillería de Valladolid (ARCV) – with a virtual exhibition Las Lanas de Medialburque (The wool of Middelburg) on a case during the Dutch Revolt
- Archivo de la Real Chancillería de Granada (ARCHGR)
- Archivo General de Simancas (AGS)
- Archivo General de Indias (AGI), Sevilla – with rich resources for the history of Latin America
- Archivo Histórico de la Nobleza (AHNOB), Toledo – archival collections on Spanish nobility and gentry
- Archivo de la Corona de Aragón (ACA), Barcelona
- Arxiu Municipal de Barcelona – the municipal archive; interface Castillian, Catalan and English
- Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona – interface Catalan, Castillian and English
- Arxiu General, Diputació de Barcelona – interface Castillian, Catalan and English
- DARA – Documentos y Archivos de Aragón – a portal for finding archives in Aragón and searching items in archival collections; the buscadores contain for instance a search interface for Documentos medievales aragoneses (DOMA / DARA-Medieval) which leads you also to digitized sources
- Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya, Sant Cugat de Valles – interface Catalan, Spanish and English; Anc@ula is the search engine
- Archivo del Regno de Valencia / Arxiu del Regne de Valéncia (ARV), Valencia
- Arxius, Biblioteca de Catalunya, Barcelona – with charters (pergamins), administrative and notarial records
- Dokuklik, Sistema Nacional de Archivos de Euskadi, Euskadiko Artxibo Historikoa – searching in Basque archives; interface Spanish, Basque and English
- Portal de Archivos de Andalucia, Junta de Andalucia – with @rchivAWeb, a separate search portal for ten regional archives – the virtual exhibition Archivos de Andalucía (Google Arts & Culture and Junta de Andalucía) brings many digital showcases
- Arquivos de Galicia, Xunta de Galicia
Some archival guides are available online as PDF’s, in particular the Guía de los archivos de la Iglesia en España, J.M. Martí Bonet (ed.) (Barcelona 2001) and the Guía de archivos militares españoles (Madrid: Ministerio de Defensa, 2012).
Sweden
- National Archives Database (NAD(, Riksarkivet – searching for archives in Sweden; interface Swedish and English; you can also use for state archives the overview of Verksamhetsplatser
- Rigsarkivet, Stockholm – the Swedish national archive
- Stadsarkivet Stockholm – the city archives
- Arkivregister Stockholms Län, Föreningsarkiven i Stockholms Län – a database for finding archival institutions and collections in the province Stockholm
- Arken, Kungliga biblioteket, Stockholm, and Umeå Universitetsbibliotek – a database for finding archival collections and personal papers at thre Swedish national library
- Sondera – until January 2020 a search portal for searching with one action in the Libris library portal, the national archival database NAD and audiovisual documents in the Svensk Mediedatabase; interface Swedish and English
- Kringla, Riksantikvarieämbetet (Swedish National Heritage Board) – a search portal for collections in Swedish museums, including also archival collections and books
Switzerland
- Schweizerisches Bundesarchiv, Bern – interface German, French, Italian and English
- Rechtstexte, Urkunde und Staatsverträge, Schweizerisches Bundesarchiv – a most useful starting point for the Swiss national archives
- Adresses d’archives en Suisse, Verein schweizerischer Archivaren und Archivarinnen (VSA-AAS) – a useful list of archives and their addresses; interface French and German
- ArCHeco: Verzeichnis der Wirtschaftsbestände in Archiven der Schweiz und Liechtensteins – a repertory for archives pertaining to economic history
- Schweizerisches Wirtschaftsarchiv, Universitätsbibliothek Basel – archives for economic history
- Kirchliche Bestände in schweizerischen Archiven, Arbeitsgruppe Geistliche Archive and Verein schweizerischen Archivaren und Archivarinnen – a searchable database for ecclesiastical collections in Swiss archives
- Handschriften – Archive – Nachlassen, Universität Basel – an overview of collections with manuscripts, archives and papers in ten Swiss libraries and a few archives; in 2021 its functionality became also available at SwissCollections, interface in four languages
- Archives Online – searching online in finding aids in a large number of Swiss archives; interface German, French and English
- HelveticArchives, Schweizerische Nationalbibliothek, Bern – online inventories of archival collections in the Swiss national library and personal papers in the Schweizerisches Literaturarchiv; interface German, French, Italian and English
- Archivkatalog, Burgerbibliothek, Bern – this library holds a number of private archives and also the Burgerarchiv, the archive of the patrician rulers, and archives of the guilds; you can also search in five thematic collections
- Stadtarchiv Bern – the municipal archive of Bern, with a separate search site for its archival collections
- Archiv für Zeitgeschichte, ETH Zürich – an archive for contemporary history; interface English and German
- Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv, Zürich -an institution for social history with a library and archival collections; interface German, French and English
- ZB Collections: Nachlässe, Archive und Einzelhandschriften, Zentralbibliothek Zürich – the entrance for finding numerous archival collections concerning persons, guilds and societies
- Manuscrits et archives, Bibliothèque de Genève – interface French, English and German; manuscripts and some 600 archival collections with personal papers which you can search at the Odyssée portal
- Portail des archives neuchâteloises – for searching archival collections in three institutions at Neuchâtel
- Klosterarchiv Einsiedeln – the archive of a famous Benedictine abbey, with also digitized archival records
Infoclio has created an online guide for research in Swiss archives, available in German and French. Ad fontes introduces you to the Klosterarchiv Einsiedeln and the Staatsarchiven of Aargau and Zürich.
Ukraine
- Archives in Ukraine, Derzhavnii Komitet Arkhiviv Ukrainy – the portal of the state archives; interface Ukrainian, Russian and English
- Vademecum-Contemporary History Ukraine. A guide to archives, research institutions, libraries, associations and museums, Georgiy Kasianov and Wilfried Jilge (eds.) (Berlin-Kyiv 2008; PDF, 0,7 MB)
- Archives of Ukraine. Guide book, State Archival Service of Ukraine (Kyiv 2012; PDF, 11,6 MB)
- ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Ukraine, Patricia Kennedy Grimsted, Sabre – a summary from 1998 with concise information about the main archives
- State Archive of Kiev – the municipal archive ranks with the state archives; interface Ukrainian, Russian and English
- Centre for Research on the Liberation Movement, Lviv – a centre for the study of Ukraine’s history since the nineteenth century; in Ukrainian
- Ukrainian National Remembrance Institute, Kyiv – an institution which brings information online about many subjects in Ukraine’s history in the twentieth century; in Ukrainian
United Kingdom
- The National Archives, Kew
- Find An Archive, National Archives, Kew – here you can search for some 2,500 archives; note also the information about historical research and the archival world
- Manorial Documents Register, National Archives – a database for finding documents in archives about manors, their administration and legal matters, except title deeds
- Archives and Records Association UK and Ireland
- Archives Hub, JISC – finding aids for English university archives, special archives and some regional archives, with a filter for digital content
- The Survey of Jewish archives in the UK and Ireland, University of Southampton – a searchable database for finding relevant archival collections on Jewish history
- AIM25: Archives in London and the M25 area – a searchable database for finding archives
- Archives for London – a platform for users of archival institutions in London, with a useful London for Researchers guide listing many archives
- Archives and Manuscripts, British Library – the online catalogue for finding archival collections and manuscripts
- Resources for South Asia, British Library – with in particular the India Office Records and Private Papers
- Parliament Archives, London
- London Metropolitan Archives – the city archives, with a searchable collections catalogue
- City of Westminster Archives Centre, London
- Bank of England Archive, London – with also digitized archival documents
- BBC Archive – an archive with rich audiovisual collections
- The Royal Archives, Windsor
- Archives and Special Collections, London School of Economics – with a wide variety of collections, searchable in several catalogues
- Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick – a repository for national archives of trade unions and employer organizations, with lots of collections touching on British social history
- Manuscript Collections, Special Collections, University of Southampton – with online databases for searching the papers of the Duke of Wellington, Lord Palmerston and Lord Mountbatten
- Mass Observation Archive: Recording everyday life in Britain, University of East Sussex, Brighton
- Special Collections, University of East Sussex, Brighton – with for example collections concerning Rudyard Kipling, Richard Attenbrough, Viriginia and Leonard Woolf
- Subject guides, Manuscripts & Archives, Cambridge University Library – you will find among other things military, naval, music and religious archives (e.g. Ely), see this overview
- Cambridge University Archives – access to online finding aids of the university archives, finding aids for college archives and the papers of many famous scholars and celebrities
- Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge – with not just archival collection concerning Winston Churchill, but also for other persons and Conservative politicians
- Online Catalogues of Archives and Manuscripts, Bodleian Libraries, Oxford – for online searching in a number of inventories of archival collections and manuscript catalogues
- Oxford University Archives: Holdings, Bodleian Libraries – you can access a number of inventories online
- Oxford College Archives – the portal website of the archives of colleges in Oxford
- English Monastic Archives, University College London – a database and downloadable dataset enabling you to search for houses, orders, counties, repositories, time periods and document genre
- Religious Archives Group: Britain’s Archival Religious Heritage – with a directory of relevant archives
- Lambeth Palace Library, London – the archives and collections of the archbishops of Canterbury
- Church of England Record Centre, London – this archive has a shared online database for its archives and manuscripts, but it is located in a different building in London
- Mundus: Gateway to missionary collections in the United Kingdom – with many links
- Location Register of English Literary Manuscripts and Letters, University of Reading
- Scottish Archive Network – a portal for archives in Scotland
- National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh – with the National Register of Archives for Scotland
- Archifau Cymru / Archives Wales – the portal for archives in Wales, with an online catalogue
- NLW Archives and Manuscripts, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth
- Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Belfast
- Gibraltar National Archives – with a number of digitized archival records and registers
See also the printed guide by Janet Foster and Julia Sheppard, British archives. A guide to archive resources in the United Kingdom (4th ed., Basingstoke-New York 2002). Archives Hub (JISC) has an online guide Using Archives: A Guide for the Inexperienced.
Vatican City
- Archivio Apostolico Vaticano (AAV), Città del Vaticano – the online overview of archival collections at the AAV in ArchiveGrid is based on the Michigan project (1984-2004), but you will need older printed guides, too; the most recent is by Francis Blouin et alii (eds.), An Inventory and Guide to Historical Documents of the Holy See (Oxford 1998) which incidentally goes beyond the AAV; see also the introduction of the Vatican Film Library, St. Louis University; the most recent edition of the Indice dei Fondi e relativi mezzi di descrizione e di ricerca dell’Archivio segreto Vaticano is available online (PDF)
- Archivio storico della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Feda (ACDF) – the archive of the congregation long known as the Sant’Uffizio, the Roman inquisition, founded in 1542
- Inventories of archival collections, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana – this great library is home to several archival collections, for example the Chigi and Colonna families, and medieval notaries in Orange
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 for now one collection concerning the Special Panels for Serious Crimes, East Timor
- 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
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
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
- BNDigital – Reencontro, Rede Memória – with in particular legal documents from Minas Gerais
- Arquivo Histórico do Itamaraty, Rede Memória
- 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
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
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
- Online Resources, 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 archval 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
Europe
- European History Primary Sources: Archival documents, European University Institute, Florence – a section for archives of this useful portal to numerous digital collections in Europe, although the tagging is sometimes insufficient
- Open Society Archives, Budapest – an archive and library concerning human rights and post-war society in Eastern Europe, with digital collections and the Parallel Archive
- CrossbordersArchives: Written Sources of Slovak and Austrian Archives – digitized archival records in one of the projects of the ICARUS platform [International Center for Archival Research]
- Matricula Online, ICARUS – a project for digitizing church registers in Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, Poland and Serbia
- Porta fontium, Generaldirektion der Bayerischen Archive, Munich and Státni oblastní archiv v Plzní (State Archive, Pilsen) – a portal to digitized archival records in Bavaria and the Czech Republic
- Acta Publica, Moravý zemský archiv v Brne, Brno – a portal to digitized church registers for birth, baptism and death from South Moravia and Austria; interface Czech, German and English
- Archivum Rhenanum: Digitale Archive am Oberrhein / Archives numérisées du Rhin supérieur – a Franco-German project of archives on both sides of the Rhine, with a blog
- Social History Portal – selected digital collections of research institutions in the field of social and economic history, such as the IISH (Amsterdam)
- European Film Gateway (EFG) – digitized films from the collections of 38 institutions
- EUscreen – a portal for digitized televison and videos from the holdings of major institutions and broadcasters
- Yerusha: Jewish Archives Europe – an initiative to create a digital portal for archival records concerning European Jewish history
- The Pinkassim Project, National Library of Israel, Jerusalem – a project for the digitization of Early Modern deliberation registers of Jewish communities in Europe
- Digital collections, International Tracing Service Arolsen – a part of the collections has been digitized; interface German and English
- Medieval Scrolls Digital Archive, Harvard University – a good selection of medieval scrolls in various genres
- Monasterium.net – a portal with mainly digitized medieval charters from 170 archives and other cultural institutions
- Visual Archive Southeastern Europe, Universität Graz and Universität Basel
- Sound Toll Registers Online, Tresoar, Leeuwarden – a database created from the famous Danish tax registers (1409-1857, complete from 1574 onwards), interface Dutch and English; there is an online index at the Nationaal Archief, The Hague, for the period 1721-1763
- Der franziszeische Kataster, Universität Innsbruck – a project around land taxation from Habsburgian Austria around 1800, with attention to regions such as Carinthia, the Bukowina and Silesia
- ICTY Court Records, International Court for the former Yugoslavia, The Hague – access after registration, interface in five languages – you can use also the case transcriptions created by the ICTY
Andorra
- Arxius en linia, Arxiu Nacional d’Andorra
Austria
- Archivnet Österreichs – a portal to digitized archival collections in Austria; interface German and English
- Die Akten der Kaiserlichen Reichshofrats – the acts of the Imperial Court Council, starting with the Alte Prager Akten (1542-1766) and the Antiqua series (mainly 17th century); see also the digitized volumes of the edition
- Registers for the Wiener Stadtbücher, 1395-1430 – the indices allow you to search for many things in these registers of testaments; note also the glossary of legal terms
- Untertanensuppliken am Reichshofrat Kaiser Rudolfs II. (1576-1612), Universität Graz
- Die Ministerratsprotokolle der Habsburger Monarchie 1848-1918, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften – a growing collection with digitized versions of editions of this pivotal resource
Belgium
- ‘Belgium’s digital archival treasures: a survey’, Rik Raetschelders, Porta Historica – a fine survey from 2013 with copious comments and direct links
- Searching the States’ Archives collections – the search portal of the Belgian state archives, with both online inventories and increasingly digitized items
- Topografisch-historische atlas, Algemeen Rijksarchief, Brussels – some 3,500 digitized images, with a focus on the First World War
- Archiefbank Brugge, Stadsarchief Brugge (Bruges) – access to finding aids and some digitized collections [for example medieval court records and First World War ordinances and proclamations], see also the heritage portal Erfgoed Brugge
- Scabinatus 4000, Archives de l’État de Liège – a project of the Université de Liège to digitize a series of régistres des échevins, aldermen’s registers from 1409 to 1797; the years 1409 to 1510 are already accessible
- Itinera Nova, Stadsarchief Leuven – in cooperation with the University of Cologne aldermen’s registers from 1365 to 1792 are transcribed and digitized
- Registers of the Raad van Vlaanderen, Rijksarchief te Gent – 329 digitized registers with acts and sentences of this court, active between 1386 and 1795
- Histoire et Archives, Archives de l’Université catholique de Louvain – three digital collections: photographs from the Great War, an exploration of the Saudian peninusula, and the archive of astronomer Georges Lemaître
- Kadocerfgoed: Religie, cultuur en samenleving, KADOC, Leuven – digital collections, virtual exhibitions and remarkable objects concerning catholicism in Belgium; interface Dutch and English
- Archives de Quarantaine / Quarantaine Archief, AAFB and VVBAD – an initative for a Belgian COVID-19 archive
- Sonuma: Les archives audiovisuelles – a portal for digitized audiovisual colections in Wallonie
- Databanken, Quetelet Centrum, Ghent University – a variety of statististical databases, also with historical statistics and HISGIS
Croatia
- Digitalni arhiv, Hrvatski državni arhiv, Zagreb – digital archival collections of the Croatian national archives
- Pisana baština [Written heritage], Regional Archive Zadar and Universität Graz – a project for the digitization of manuscripts and archival records, some of them in Glagolitic script; there is an accompanying virtual exhibition
Czech Republic
- Digitalni badatelna, Národni archiv – digital collections of the Czech national archives; interface Czech and English
- Digital archive, Moravý zemský archiv v Brne, Brno
- Digitální archiv, Statni oblastni archiv v Treboni (Regional State Archive Trebon) – interface Czech, English and German
- Václav Havel Library – a documentation center with a digital library and archive; interface Czech and English
- Thomas G. Masaryk Papers, University of Pittsburgh Libraries – 22 archival documents from the years 1918-1919 concerning the beginnings of the Czech Republic
- Terezín/Theresienstadt Collection, Jewish Museum, Prague – a collection with archival records from hte concentration camp during the Second World War
Denmark
- ArkivDK – a database leading you to finding aids of Danish archives and where present also digitized materials
- Arkivalieronline, Rigsarkivet – searching for and looking at digitized records from the Danish national archives; interface Danish and English
- Kilder på nettet, Københavns Stadtarchiv – digitized police registers and much more from Copenhagen; note the nifty multilingual interface
- The Danish West-Indies, Rigsarkivet – 5 million scans of documents concerning 250 years of Danish presence in the Caribbean, in particular on the Virgin Islands
- Dansk Kulturarv – a platform for digitized materials concerning cultural heritage from several Danish institutions, including the Rigsarkivet
- Retrodigitalisering: Kilder til danske kommuners historie [Sources for Danish communal history] – not just digitized parish registers and communal registers, but also crowdsourcing for transcribing these resources
- Danske Kancellis Supplikprotokoller 1705-1795, Aarhus Universitet and Rigsarkivet – digital versions of an edition with supplications to the Danish chancery
Estonia
- SAAGA, Ravhusarhiiv, Tartu – the portal for digitized archival records of the Estonian national archive; interface Estonian and English
- Virtual Reading Room, Ravhusarhiiv, Tartu – a variety of digital resources and databases; interface Estonian and English
Finland
- Finna – the portal for (digital) collections of Finnish archives, museums and libraries
- Kansallisarkiston Digitaaliarkistoon – digital archival collections of the Finnish National Archives; interface Finnish, Swedish and English
- Tuomiokirjat [Finnish district courts records], Kansalliarkisto and Transkribus – searching in digitized and transcribed records from 1810 to 1870; interface Finnish, Swedish and English
- Diplomatarium Fennicum, National Archives of Finland – a database with digitized medieval charters; search interface Finnish, Swedish and English
- Documenta Carelica, Kansallisarkisto and National Archive of the Republic Karelia, Petrozavodsk – documents from the Carelia region; interface Finnish, Karelian, Russian and English
France
- ARCHIM, Archives nationales de France – a website dedicated to some showpieces and pivotal collections, such as the trial of the Templars, royal charters and registers, documents concerning the French Revolution, papers of Robespierre, French constitutions since 1798, and much more
- Salle des Inventaires Virtuelles, Archives nationales de France – searching online in 24,000 inventories with an increasing number of digital images, currently some 8 million
- Archives de France: Portail d’acccès aux archives numérisées – you can search for particular departemental archives, also using a map, or browse the list with themes
- Panorama des documents d’archives en ligne, France Archives – twelve overviews for particular types of archival records and record series – – there is a similar alphabetical list at FranceGenWeb
- Archives en ligne, France Archives – three interactive maps for searching digitized military registers, cadastral maps (ground registry) and civil registration in departemental archives
- Archives: France, Ménestrel – a very useful overview of digitized medieval documents in French archives at this portal site for medieval studies
- Archives nationales d’outremer, Aix-en-Provence – archival collections from the overseas French colonial empire with an overview of archives, digitized sources (civil status, conscription registers); digitized images and maps can be searched in the Ulysse database
- Minutier central des notaires de Paris – searching for and in notarial registers from Paris
- Archives numérisées de Paris – mainly civil status (état civil), but also fonds judiciaires
- Archives de la Bastille, Gallica, Bibliothèque nationale de France – digitized archival records of this infamous prison during the Ancien Régime; part of its archive is held at the BnF
- Trucs et astuces: Les papiers de Tocqueville, Archives départementales de la Manche, Saint-Lô – the personal papers and the manuscripts of the works of Alexis de Tocqueville
- Yale Tocqueville Manuscripts, ca. 1802-1840, Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT – a selection of manuscripts, engravings and other pictures – also from his friend Gustave de Beaumont – has been digitized; there is a finding aid
- Les manuscrits de Stendhal, Grenoble – the university and the municipal library created this digital collection with author manuscripts and other archival records
- Archives du Périgord, Archives départementales de Pau – digitized archival resources and editions, with also a more detailed overview
- Archives en ligne, Archives municipales, Avignon – not only census and election registers, but also decisions of the municipal council and documents concerning police
- Le Petit Thalamus de Montpellier, Archives municipales de Montpellier – medieval city registers with privileges, chronicles and customary law
- Mémoire vive: Archives municipales, Ville de Besançon – city council deliberations, parish and population registers, census and tax registers; note also at this digital portal the Collection Granvelle
- The Himanis Project: Indexing the Trésor des Chartes registers – an international project with indexes for and access to some 68,000 medieval charters and registers from the royal archives at the Archives Nationales
- Brevets français, 19e siècle, Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle – a collection with nineteenth-century industrial patents
- Archives numérisées, Archives départementales de Loire-Atlantique, Nantes -with imporant collections for maritime history and the dukes of Brittany
- Archives Touraines, Archives départementales d’Indre-et-Loire, Tours – a fair choice of digital collections
- Minutiers tourangeaux du XVe siècle et du début du XVIe siècle, Bibliothèque Virtuelle des Humanistes, Université de Tours – a project for the edition of late medieval notarial registers from Tours
- Ressources comptables en Dauphiné, Provence, Savoie et Venaissin (XIIIe-XVe siècle) – medieval accounts from several regional archives and the Archivio Segreto Vaticano
Germany
- Digitalisierte Bestände: Übersicht, Bundesarchiv – an overview of the main digitized archival collections
- ARGUS, Bundesarchiv, Koblenz – the search database for finding aids of the German national archives, including materials of the former DDR intelligence service, the infamous Stasi-Unterlagen
- Stasi-Mediathek – searching in and access to – a selection of – materials in the vast Stasi-Archive (111 kilometers) from the former DDR
- Enquete-Online: Die Enquete-Kommissionen zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur – a database version of the 32 volumes of the inquiry concerning the history of the DDR dictature
- Die DDR im Blick der Stasi: Die geheimen Bericht an die SED-Führung – a database with secret reports about the DDR in various forms between 1953 and 1988
- Digitalisierte Archivalien, Geheimes Staatsarchiv, Berlin – several series of digitized archival records and also manuscripts
- Weimar, die erste deutsche Demokratie, Bundesarchiv – a portal to digitized archival resources concerning the Weimar Republic (1919-1933), with among other things the Akten der Reichskanzlei. Weimarer Republik (original edition in 23 volumes (1968-1990))
- Die Kabinettsprotokolle der Bundesregierung – the Bundesarchiv adds every year digital versions of the original cabinet notes
- Digitale Reichsstatistik, Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft, Hamburg and Kiel – a searchable version of the original volumes (1873-1883), with also crime statistics
Deutsche Statistische Jahrbücher, Universität Mannheim – statistical almanacs in three series, 1880-1942 and 1952-1990, and also for the DDR (1955-1990)
- Digitale Sammlungen von Archiven, Wikisource – a concise overview of digital collections mainly in Germany, with also some projects in Austria and Switzerland
- Digitales Archiv Nordrhein-Westfalen – digital archival collections in this German Bundesland
- Das digitale Historisches Archiv Köln, Cologne – this digital archive started immediately after the fateful collapse of the archive building in 2009
- Archivinformationssystem Hessen – to some of the finding aids digitized documents have been connected; for Dutch researchers the Altes Dillenburger Archiv (Archivdatenbank Nassau-Oranien, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Wiesbaden) is interesting
- Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen – a portal for regional history with also some digitized archival collections; some Hessian collections are in particular interesting for legal historians
- Digitales Archiv Marburg – digitized materials at Marburg
- Reformationsportal Mitteldeutschland (DigiRef) – a portal with digitized archival records concerning the Reformation from archives in Saxonia and Thuringia
- Archivgut Online, Landesarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt – with not only online finding aids, digitized charters, registers and special items, but also a digital collection Friedliche Revolution 1989/90
- Medieval Ashkenaz – Corpus der Quellen zur Geschichte der Juden im spätmittelalterlichen Reich, Universität Trier – sources for Jewish history in the late medieval German empire; interface German and English
- Die Rechtsprechung des Reichskammergerichts (1495-1806), Ruhr-Universität Bochum – a website with an downloadable database (25 MB) concerning the processes at the Reichskammergericht, the highest court of the Holy Roman Empire
- Württembergisches Urkundenbuch online, Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg – some 6,500 medieval charters
- Digitalisierte Archivalien, Universitätsarchiv, Universität Tübingen
- Freisinger Handschriften (Traditionsbücher, Kopialbücher, Urbare und Rechnungsbücher), Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Munich and Bayerische Landesbibliothek Online – digital access to important medieval documents about land tenure and accounts
- Nuremberg Trials, Harvard Law School Library – see also in particular the virtual exhibition The Nuremberg Trials at 70 with an overview of other online resources; see also the overview of materials digitized by the Library of Congress, including the Blue, Red and Green Series
- Donovan Nuremberg Trials Collection, Cornell University Law Library – 150 volumes with transcribed reports and other documents
- Les minutes du procès Nuremberg, Université Caen – the French version of the official edition in 22 volumes, as web pages and PDF
- The International Military Tribunal for Germany, Avalon Project, Yale Law School – mainly a digital version of the Blue Set – also digitized by the Library of Congress – Gallica has digitized a French set in 41 volumes
- The International Military Tribunal Nuremberg, The Nizkor Project – a portal to relevant documents
- Taube Archive of the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg (1945-46), Stanford University Libraries – some 250,000 digitized pages
- Justiz und NS-Verbrechen, C.F. Rüter and D.W. de Mildt, Universiteit van Amsterdam – an online version of the source editions on trials after the Second World War, now completely in open access
- Digitales Deutsches Frauenarchiv – a portal for researching women’s history in Germany
- German history in documents and images, German Historical Institute, Washington, DC
- Key Documents of German-Jewish History, Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden, Hamburg – a portal with selected documents and archival records
- Testifying to the truth: Eyewitnesses to the Holocaust, Wiener Holocaust Library, London – a digital oral history archive with 1,000 eyewitness accounts
- The Online Wiener Archive, Wiener Library for the Study of the Nazi Era and the Holocaust, Tel Aviv University
- Coronarchiv, Universität Hamburg, Ruhr Universität Bochum and Universität Giessen – a project documenting life in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Rechtsprechung im Ostseeraum, Universität Greifswald – a project for the digitisation and transcription of verdicts and legal consultations for three Early Modern tribunals
- Rezesse der niederdeutschen Städtetage, Forschungsstelle für die Geschichte der Hanse und des Ostseeraums, Stadtarchiv Lübeck and Transkribus – acts of Hanseatic towns for the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries onwards, starting from 1537
Greece
- @ρχειομνήμων [Archeiomemnon] – a portalsite in English of the Greek State Archives for many digitized archives, with further links
- A database of Ottoman documents in the Kaireios Library of the island Andros, Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Rethymno, Crete – transliterated legal documents from the Ottoman period
- Ψηφιακό Αρχείο 1821 (Digital Archive 1821 – a digital archive concerning Greece’s struggle for independence in 1821; interface Greek and English
Hungary
- Hungaricana – at this portal you will find several archival collections, with medieval charters, documents from Budapest, royal letters and decrees, a census from 1767 and much more; interface Hungarian and English
- Digital Archives Portal, National Archives of Hungary and Budapest City Archives – a combined protal for digital collections of both institutions; interface Hungarian, English and German
- Hungarian Archives Portal – quick access to digitized resources, with also a bibliography; interface Hungarian, English and German
- Adatbasizokonline (Databases Online) – a portal to online archival databases with overviews for categories and repositories, and for subjects; interface in five languages
- Budapest Fóváros Levéltára (Budapest City Archive) – with a number of digitized archival collections (criminal procedures, notarial deeds, inheritance cases); interface Hungarian, English and German
- MTVA Archivum – digital audiovisual collections and also music scores and press media; interface Hungarian
- Arcanum Maps – digitized country maps, city maps and historical land registry maps, including Katasterkarten for the Habsburg Empire; interface Hungarian, German, English and Rumanian
Iceland
- Stafrænar heimildir (Digital resources), National Archives of Iceland – a wide choice of digitized archival records; judicial records can be found in the section Dómabókagrunnur; interface Icelandic, Danish and English
- Einkasjöl – electronic archival records at the National and University Library of Iceland; interface Icelandic and English
The Diplomatarium Islandicum –Íslenskt fornbréfasafn, Jón Sigurðsson et alii (eds.) (16 vol., Reykjavik 1852-1972) exists only in print form, digitized at Baekur.
Ireland
- Digital resources, National Archives of Ireland, Dublin – a number of digitized archival collections
- Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland, National Archives Ireland – this portal with three reconstructed archival collections, and much more, was launched in June 2022, acentury after the tragic destruction in 1922
- CIRCLE: A Calendar of Irish Chancery Rolls c. 1244-1509, Trinity College, Dublin – the restoration and reconstruction of the important resource sdeverely damaged at the Public Record Office in 1922 took more than forty years, with now some 20,000 documents
- The 1641 Depositions, Trinity College, Dublin – digital images and transcriptions of records concerning the 1641 rebellion
- The Down Survery: Mapping a century of change, Trinity College, Dublin – a survey of landed property conducted between 1656 and 1658, with a HISGIS map
- Dublin Metropolitan Police and Civic Guard (Garda Síochána) Personnel Registers, Digital Library, University College Dublin – for the period 1837-1975, accessible upto 1925, and 1922-1924 (Civic Guard)
- Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) Prisoners Books, Digital Library, University College Dublin – for the period 1905-1918
Italy
- Documenti online, Sistema archivistico nazionale (SAN)
- Politica estera e storia: Documenti ed immagini della diplomazia Italiana, Farnesina, Minstero degli Affari Esteri – a digital archive concerning Italian diplomacy and foreign policy
- Serie storiche, Istituto Nazionale di Statistica – historical statistical data
- BOhisto: Bozen-Bolzano History online, Stadtarchiv Bozen – the digital portal with digitized sources for the history of this town in Tirol; interface Italian and German
- Sfondrati family papers, Brigham Young University – some 300 Early Modern archival records from a family in and around Como
- Città degli Archivi, Bologna – searching for municipal collections from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
- Digitalizazzione di alcuni fondi, Archivio di Stato di Bologna – a selection of medieval archival records
- Fondo Datini, Archivio di Stato di Prato – digital access to this famous merchant archive in Tuscany
- Diplomatico: Pergamene secoli VIII-XIV, Archivo di Stato, Florence and Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa – 85,000 digitized charters and rolls
- The Medici Archive Project – archival records in Florence from and around the Medici family; access after registration
- Mediceo avanti il Principato, Archivio di Stato, Florence – materials from the fourteenth century until 1537
- Progetto Archivi Digitalizzati, Archivio di Stato, Florence – yet more digitized archives; here an overview of the fondi, with for example the Registri delle Provvisioni with legislation
- Tratte, Brown University – a database on officeholders in Florence between 1282 and 1532
- Online Catasto, 1427-1429, Brown University – the legendary digital project started by David Herlihy (1930-1991) to edit this Florentine tax register; you can also access a dataset (University of Wisconsin) and an Excel version (Centre des recherches historiques, EHESS, Paris)
- Spinelli Archive 1321-1917, Beinecke Library, Yale University – a substantial digital selection from a Florentine family and business archive, with papal bankers and diplomats; finding aids
- Medici Family Letters, Wichita State University, Wichita, KA – nearly 250 letters
- La Memoria degli Sforza, Lombarida Beni Culturali and Archivio de Stato di Milano – sixteen digitized registers with letters by Francesco Sforza I (1450-1456)
- Progetto Divenire, Archivio di Stato di Venezia – the portal to digitized Venetian archival records
- Judaica-Europeana, Archivio di Stato di Venezia – digitized archival records about the Jewish community in Venice
- The Rulers of Venice, 1332-1524, Benjamin G. Kohl, Andrea Mozzato and Monique O’Connell – a database around the doges
- Cives Veneciarum (CIVES): privilegi di cittadinanza veneziana, dalle origini all’anno 1500, Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia – a database for searching medieval grants of Venetian citizenship
- Estimo Veneziano 1379, Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia – a database for a Venetian taxation register
- Archivio digitale, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice – a number of digiitzed cultural heritage collections, for example concerning Antonio Vivaldi
- Codice digitale degli archivi veronesi (VIII-XII secolo), Andrea Brugnoli (ed.) – an online edition with images of charters and other archival records held at libraries and archives in Verona, with a repertory of notaries
- Digital Archive Verona, Archivio di Stato di Verona – with digitized inventories, maps and wills
- Archivio digitale della comunità ebraica di Mantova, Biblioteca digitale, Biblioteca Teresiana, Mantua – digitized archival records dating from the sixteenth to the twentieth century
- Progetto Imago II, Archivio di Stato di Roma – with a number of census records (catasti) and other series (serie), among them charters and notarial registers
- Descriptio Romae: Catasto Urbano-Pio Gregoriano, Archivio di Stato di Roma – a HISGIS for one of the Roman catasti (1816 and 1835)
- Risorse digitali, Archivio Storico Capitolino, Rome – various digitized archival collections, among them papers of the Orsini family, historical maps and photographs; interface Italian, English and French
- Orsini Family Papers 1150-1950, UCLA University Library – 76 items from the archive of a very important Roman family; you can use also an online finding aid (Online Archive of California)
- Protocolli di notai romani del Trecento, Società Romana di Storia Patria – transcriptions of four fourteenth-century notarial registers
- Digitalizazzioni, Archivio di Stato di Torino, Turin – here, too, a variety of projects, with for example medieval accounting rolls from the Savoye and Early Modern peace treaties
- Archivio Albani: Papa Clemente XI, Biblioteca Oliveriana, Pesaro – digitized archival records concerning this pope (Giovanni Francesco Albani, 1649-1721)
- Il Codice minerario di Massa Maritima (secc. XIII-XIV), Università di Siena – one of the oldest texts concerning medieval mining law
- Fondazione 1563: Archivio Storico della Compagnia di San Paolo, Turin – between 1563 and 1852 this institution was active in education and finance, documented in a rich archive
- Digitalizzazione, Archivio storico, Banca di Napoli – three digital projects, and Progetto Pandetta, a project for automatic transcribing with Transkribus
- Archivi della Resistenza, Fondazione Gramsci – resistance movements during the Second World War
- Archivio Lodovico Antonio Muratori: Carteggi e documenti, Biblioteca Universitaria Estense, Modena – Internet Culturale – digitized documents and notebooks of this important historian
Lithuania
- Pergamentu kolecija, Martynas Mazvydas National Library of Lithuania – digitized medieval charters, with a number of papal documents; interface Lithuanian and English
- Pergamentu / Parchments, Wroblenski Library, Lithuanian Academy of Sciences – nearly 300 charters; interface Lithuanian and English
Malta
- Malta Parish Archives, The Malta Study Center at the Virtual Hill Museum and Library, Saint John’s University – digitized parish registers from the sixteenth century onwards
- Notarypedia, Notarial Archives – a recently launched project for creating digital access to notarial registers
Netherlands – more can be found at my Old Dutch Law page
- Nationaal Archief, Den Haag – the search portal Ga het NA has been intergrated with the website of the Dutch national archives; increasingly digitized items are added to the online inventories and clearly indicated, among them for example a series of the “Prize Papers” from the High Court of Admiralty kept at Kew and many Dutch East India Company records
- Zoek Akten (Search Acts) – a genealogical portal bringing you mainly to digitized civil status records, often the microflims created for FamilySearch; this site has stopped, however, you can visit for similar purposes Wie WasWie and Open Archieven
- Archieven in beeld: Historische transcripties – a pilot for a platform of several major Dutch archives for searching with AI in transcriptions of some 200.000 digitized scans
- Beeldbank Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed – a database with nearly a million images concerning Dutch cultural heritage and history, including the cadastral maps (land registry maps) created between 1811 and 1832
- Alle Amsterdamse Akten, Stadsarchief Amsterdam – a portal for Early Modern notarial acts; access to the acts after free registration; you can now search directly in transcribed acts at Transkribus
- Boedelbank, Meertens Instituut/KNAW, Amsterdam – a searchable database for the texts of Early Modern house inventories from four Dutch regions showing the movable goods and belongings of deceased persons
- Dutch Prize Papers, Huygens Institute, The Hague – one of the projects to digitize and transcribe prize papers from records series of the High Court of Admiralty, TNA
- RemDoc: Rembrandt Documents, Huygens Institute and Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen – a database with transcribed documents concerning or mentioning Rembrandt van Rijn, a lot of them are legal documents
- BoschDoc, Huygens Institute and Radboud Universiteit – a similar project with records concerning the life and work of Jheronimus Bosch
- The Amboyna Conspiracy Trial, Monash University – a digital collection – also for educational use – about a case confronting the Dutch and English at the island Ambon in the Indonesian archipelago in 1623
- Digitale Charterbank Nederland, Huygens Institute – a tool for searching among some 170,000 charters in Dutch archives, increasingly with images and sometimes transcriptions
- Charterbank, Regionaal Archief Tilburg – some 1200 late medieval charters with transcriptions and summaries
- Digitized collections, Zeeuws Archief, Middelburg – among them the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie, and guides for the Admiralty of Veere and resources concerning Suriname
- Pilgrim Archives, Erfgoed Leiden en omstreken (Heritage Leiden) – a selection of digitized documents from the early seventeenth century
Norway
- Digitalarkivet, Arkivverket – the digital archive of the Norwegian governmental archives; interface Norse and English
- DigitaltMuseum – at this portal for digitized museal collections you can find also some collections of archives
- Oslo Byarkiv – the digital archive of the municipal archives in Oslo
- Diplomatarium Norvegicum, Digitalarkivet / Dokumentasjonsprosjektet, Universitet i Oslo- a database version of the 23 volumes concerning medieval charters; interface Norwegian and English; most of the printed volumes have been digitized by the Nasjonalbiblioteket
- Regesta Norvegica, Digitalarkivet / Dokumentasjonsprosjektet, Universitet i Oslo – a database version of this work with summaries of all historical medieval documents until 1430; currenly some 13,000 items
- Diplomsamlingen, Universitetbiblioteket i Bergen – formally only a catalog for some 1,250 documents, among them 300 medieval charters, but with many images attached
- Historische collectie, Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS) – statistical data from the 19th and 20th centuries
Volkstellingen 1795-1971, CBS and DANS – Dutch general census data
Poland
- Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe (National Digital Archive) – audiovisual materials and archival records from the Polish State Archives; interface Polish and English
- Szukajwarchiwach – searching online for some 23 million digitized archival records in Polish archives; interface Polish, English and German
- Archiwum Akt Nowych – an archive in Warsaw for 20th-century archival records
- Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych w Warzawie (Central Archive of Historical Records in Warsaw) – a search interface for a number of digitized collections in Warsaw
- Lubelskie Archiwum Cyfrowe (Digital Archive Lublin) – documents from a city archive
- Archiwa Prezolumu 1989-1991 (Archives of the Breakthrough) – digitized records about the Polish revolution around 1990 and the role of Solidarnosc
- ArchiwaOnline, Diocese of Radom – digitized parish registers, also for other Polish dioceses, and also for records at Lviv and Vilnius
- IURA: Źródła prawa dawnego / Sources from old laws, Jagiellonski University, Cracow – a portal with seventeen collection cocnerning Polish law and institutions from the Middle Ages up to the twentieth century; interface Polish and English
Portugal
- Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo – DigitArq, Lissabon – the digital archive of the Portuguese National Archives
- Arquivo Histórico Parlamentar, Assembleia da República – finding aids for archival collections in this parliamentary archive and access to digitized photographs, films and videos
- Arquivo Digital do Camões, Lissabon – four digitized collections, including documents concerning colonial history
- Memórias Paroquiais de 1758, Arquivo Nacional de Torre Tombo and Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa – a digitized survey of Portugal with an interactive map; interface Portuguese and English
Rumania
- Arhiva Medievalâ României – an international project for the digitization of medieval documents, as for now already some 55,000 documents
San Marino
- Antichi documenti, Archivio di Stato – access after registration; interface Italian
Spain
- Portal de Archivos Españoles (PARES) – searching using the tree structure at this portal for Spanish online inventories and digitized archival records – and 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
- Catastro de Ensenada, Archivo General de Simancas – between 1750 and 1754 a massive effort was made for a census of Castille documenting people, their situation and possessions
- Patrimonio documental: Archivo fondo 1834-1923, Senato de España
- Víctimas de la Guerra Civil y Represaliados del Franquismo, PARES – a database for searching persons who were victims of the Franco regime
- Fondos documentales, Archivos Históricos de la Región de Murcia – digitized medieval charters, acts of collegiate charters and socio-economic documents
- Arxius en línia, Departament de Cultura, Generalitat de Catalunya – searching for digitized materials in a number of Catalan archives
- Pergamins, Biblioteca de Catalunya, Barcelona – 15,000 digitized charters
- Fons històric de l’Hospital de la Santa Creu, Biblioteca de Catalunya, Barcelona – archival records of a hospital founded in 1401
- Expediciones a Indias, Biblioteca Virtual de la Defensa – a selection of digitized archival records concerning the Spanish empire in the Americas upto the struggles for independence
- Spanish Legal Documents (15th-19th centuries), Library of Congress – some 1,700 documents, among them for example briefs and legal opinions
- Archivo de la Heredad de aguas de Arucas y Firgas, Memoria digital de Canarias – digitized records of a water managment board from the late seventeenth to the mid-twentieth century
- Galiciana: Arquivo Dixital de Galicia, Xunta de Galicia – interface Galician, Spanish and Portuguese
Sweden
- SVAR, Digitala forskarsalen, Riksarkivet, Stockholm – the sheer variety of digitized resources at the Swedish national archives is impressive
- Svenskt Diplomatariums huvudkartotek (Medeltidsbrev) (SDHK) , Riksarkivet – a database for searching Swedish medieval charters, with a filter for digitized charters; interface Swedish and English
- Svenska ostindiska kompaniets digitala arkiv, Universitetsbibliotek Göteborg – documents of the Swedish East India Company (1731-1813)
- Riksdagmotioner, Centre for Digital Humanities, Göteborgs Universitet – a database for searching parliamentary motions from 1971 onwards
Switzerland
- Diplomatische Dokumente der Schweiz (Dodis) – a portal with digitized editions of documents on Swiss diplomacy, a journal and a bibliography; multilingual interface
- Digitalisiertes Archivgut, Staatsarchiv Basel – digitized archival records from the Kanton Basel
- Urfehdebücher der Stadt Basel, Universität Graz and Universität Basel – city registers concerning offenses, 1563-1569
- Jahrrechnungen der Stadt Basel 1535 bis 1610 – Digital, Universität Graz and Universität Basel – digitized city accounts
- Archives d’État / Base de données Adhémar, Geneva – another state or provincial archive
- Digital verfügbare Bestande, Staatsarchiv Zürich – the Kanton Zürich, too, has digitized a number of archival records, for example the Zürcher Gesetzessammlung seit 1803
- Der Zürcher Sommer 1968, Universität Zürich – nearly one thousand digitized documents about the student revolts in Zürich
- Zurlaubiana, Aargauer Kantonsbibliothek, Aarau – an online version of its core, the edition of the Acta Helvetica, 186 massive volumes with some 35,000 documents from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century
- Memobase – a portal for digitized audiovisual documents from 44 Swiss cultural and research institutions
- e-manuscripta – not only manuscripts from seven Swiss libraries, but also some archival documents, maps, and personal papers
- Vallesiana – the portal for digitized cultural heritage collections in Wallis; interface German and French
- Historische Statistik der Schweiz Online (HSSO) – mainly for the twentieth century, interface German, French and English
Ukraine
- Digital Archive of the Ukrainian Liberation Movement, Lviv – with digitized documents from several periods since the nineteenth century[ interface Ukrainian and English
United Kingdom
- Online Collections, The National Archives – a guide to digitized collections; you can use preset filters
- Anglo-American Legal Tradition – a website at the University of Houston with images of legal documents at the National Archives
- The Cabinet Papers (1915-1984), National Archives, Kew
- Records Online, Parliamentary Archives, UK Parliament – legislation, debates, the medieval Parliamentary Rolls and judgments of the House of Lords
- Cambridge University Archives, Cambridge Digital Library – starting with an Early Modern inventory of books, records and movable property, and a sixteenth-century manuscript with charters and privileges
- Digital Documents, London Metropolitan Archives – one thousand digitized archival records
- The Great Parchment Project, London Metropolitan Archives – a project for restoring the records of a 1639 survey of estates in Derry, badly damaged by fire in 1786
- Charles Booth’s London: Poverty maps and police notebooks, London School of Economics – an online inventory of the 450 notebooks, some 40 digitized notebooks and the famous maps of his inquiry into nineteenth-century London
- Lambeth Palace Library Collections – a selection of digitized manuscripts, books and archival records from the holdings of this library and the Church of England Record Centre
- Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540-1835
- Digital collections, Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
- Virtual Reading Room, Special Collections, University of Southampton – with in particular letters from the Palmerston Papers
- Digital Archive, Scottish Archive Network – a guide to digitized archival records, some on this site, others elsewhere
- ScotlandPlaces – a portal for digitized archival records
- Scottish Session Papers, University of Edinburgh – a pilot with some 13,500 images from the huge archive of the Scottish supreme court between 1780 and 1850 held at the Signet Library and the Advocates Library
- Scottish Court of Session Papers, University of Virginia Law Library – a collection guide with a Scots law glossary
- Digital Gallery: Archives, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth – a variety of digitized archival collections
- Crime and Punishment, National Library of Wales – a database concerning the criminal jurisdiction of the Court of Great Sessions, 1730-1830
- The Gibraltar Explorer, University of Toronto, Scarborough – with for example three digitized censuses
- Georgian Papers Programme, Royal Archives and Royal Library – a project for digitizing archival records for the Georgian Period (1714-1837)
- The Peterloo Massacre, University of Manchester – on August 16, 1819 a peaceful protest ended tragically
- Hearth Tax Digital, University of Roehampton and Universität Graz – taxes levied in seventeenth century England and Wales
- Durham Priory Library Recreated – apart from digitized medieval manuscripts held at Durham Cathedral Library some cartularies and registers from Durham Cathedral Archive are present here, too
- Canterbury Cathedral Image Gallery – with also digitized archival records and books
Vatican City
- Atti ufficiali della Santa Sede – a digital collection with the officials acts in the Acta Sanctae Sedis (1865-1908), the Acta Apostolicae Sedis from 1909 onwards, and an edition of acts and documents concerning the Vatican during the Second World War [Actes et documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, Pierre Blet et alii (eds.) (11 vol., Città del Vaticano 1970-1981)]
- Archivi, Digital Vatican Library – not only manuscripts are being digitized these years, also items from several archival collections held by this library, such as the Archivio Capitulare di San Pietro and the archive of the Chigi family
- 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 archvial 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
- 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 serach interface for its contents