Archives and Manuscript Collection Databases US & Worldwide

Archive Grid

• ArchiveGrid
  Descriptions of nearly one million collections held by thousands of libraries, archives, and musuems worldwide.

Subscription Database (access for University of Chicago only)

• Archive Finder
  Database describing more than 220,000 collections of primary source material housed in thousands of repositories across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.

Selected Databases on the Web

• American Institute of Physics: Physics History Finding Aids
  Disciplinary finding aids database providing access to collections at more than forty institutions in the US and UK. Site also includes the International Catalog of Sources, a database containing brief descriptions of archival and manuscript collections related to physics held in repositories worldwide.
• Archives Canada
  Access to finding aids and digitized collections contributed by more than 800 archival repositories across Canada.
• Archives Hub: United Kingdom Universities and Colleges (Consortium of Research Libraries)
  Access to collection-level descriptions and finding aids of archives held in universities and colleges in the United Kingdom.
• Archives Portal Europe
  Provides searching across more than five million digital files in archival collections from 49 institutions in 17 European countries.
• Archives of American Art: Research Collections
  Collections containing more than 16 million manuscripts and images documenting the visual arts in America; contents of more than 110 collections are available digitally.
• Calames
  Union catalog of archives and manuscripts at French university libraries as well as libraries of other institutions including the Muséum d'histoire naturelle, Institut de France, and Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet.
• Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach
  More than 1200 collections documenting German literature and literary culture from 1750 to the present, including manuscripts of Schiller, Hölderlin, Mörike, Hermann Hesse, Theodor Heuss, among others.
• Directory of Corporate Archives in the United States and Canada
  Listings for companies and professional associations that support internal archives or contract with historical consulting firms to maintain their archives.
• Five College Archives & Manuscript Collections More than 1,500 finding aids from collections held by the Five Colleges (Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst).
• Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung: Archiv der sozialen Demokratie
  Manuscript sources on the history of German and international workers' movement, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and other political parties and trade unions, and papers of leaders and activists associated with social democratic movements.
• History of Medicine Finding Aids Consortium

Nearly 9,500 finding aids from over 100 special collections and archival repositories throughout the U.S. broadly related to the history of medicine and its allied sciences. 

• Library of Congress: Manuscript Division
  Links to Manuscript Division holdings of forty million items in ten thousand separate collections through catalog records, finding aids, online exhibitions, divisional publications, and an illustrated guide to the collections. Holdings include papers of U.S. presidents and government officials; records of the NAACP, National Urban League, and other non-governmental organizations; and papers of reformers, scientists, and scholars such as Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, Margaret Sanger, Robert Oppenheimer, and Margaret Mead.
• National Archives and Records Administration: Archival Research Catalog (ARC)
  Searchable online catalog of federal government records holdings in NARA faciilties across the United States, including more than 400 record groups and more than 300,000 file units.
• Northwest Digital Archives
  Union database of finding aids for archives and manuscript collections in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Alaska, and Washington.
• Online Archive of California
  More than 20,000 online archival and manuscript finding aids from more than 200 contributing libraries and archives in California. The database also includes more than 220,000 digital images and documents.
• Portal de Archivos Españoles (PARES)
  More than five million documents and 26 million scanned images presenting Spanish history from the seventh century to the present; holdings are drawn from eleven state-owned archives managed by the Ministry of Culture including the Archivo General de Indias and Archivo General de Simancas.

For further information, contact:

Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center
University of Chicago Library
1100 E. 57th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60637
Send us a question
Phone: (773) 702-8705
Fax: (773) 702-3728