Research Guides: French Language & Literature: Archives and Manuscripts

Archives & Manuscripts

National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections
Online catalog contains close to 500,000 records available in the Research Libraries Information Network bibliographic database, for archival and manuscript collections in research libraries, museums, state archives, and historical societies located throughout North America.
Archive Finder
A directory of over 5480 repositories and over 132,300 collections of primary source material across the United States.
Repositories of Primary Sources
A listing of over 5000 web sites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary sources for the research scholar. Includes links for Europe, Africa, the Caribbean. Plus, a useful "Additional Links" page. Please note: this resource has not been updated or maintained since January 1, 2015.
Archives and Libraries in France
Though somewhat out of date, still a useful source of information on French archives. Focus is mainly on Paris and environs. For each archive, provides address, hours, description of holdings, access procedures, etc. Entries also indicate whether or not the archive has a catalog.

ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new window
ArchiveGrid is a listing of archival collections across the world. Users can search nearly a million collection descriptions from thousands of libraries, museums, and archives. Researchers searching ArchiveGrid can learn about the many items in each of these collections, contact archives to arrange a visit to examine materials, and order copies.