Find Records
Historical record repositories throughout the state collect and make available records of businesses; governments; religious, social and fraternal organizations; ethnic and other groups; and the papers of individuals and families who lived and worked in New York. There are over 2800 historical records repositories and over 4300 local governments in New York.
This directory provides contact information, and websites for holders of historical records. Types of organizations you'll find here include:
- Historical societies
- Non-profit organizations
- Schools
- State government
- Federal government
- Corporate archives
- Museums
- Libraries
- Universities or colleges
- Local governments
- Religious organizations
- Special collection libraries & archives
A special note. In New York State, all local governments, whether a town, city, school, or county, hold archival records. Only governments that actively promote access to their historical records are located in this directory. Contact information for other local governments can be found in the Directory of Local Governments.
The directory database can retrieve information in a variety of ways. Select the one that best matches your needs. You can search for organizations:
- By city
- By county
- With web exhibits
- With digitized collections
- With online catalogs
- With web based finding aids, guides or indexes
Don't see the organization you were looking for? You can also:
- Find out if a historical record repository has a web site and/or online catalog by searching the New York listing in Repositories of Primary Sources
- Find out if an business institution has an archives by using
the Directory of
Corporate Archives in the United States and Canada
Many of the historical records repositories have contributed information on their holdings to the Historic Documents Inventory (HDI), the statewide section of Excelsior, the online catalog of the New York State Archives and State Library. The HDI includes general descriptions of repository holdings as well as descriptions of individual collections.
Help us keep our directory up to date!
- If the information appearing in the directory is inaccurate or incomplete, please contact us with the correct information!
- You may also submit new entries. Please send the following information to dhs@mail.nysed.gov
- Repository's legal name
- Organization's street address
- Mailing address if different
- County
- Institutional phone and fax numbers (don’t supply private phone numbers)
- Institutional e-mail address
- Website address
- Contact's name
- Contact's title
- Hours research material is open to the public
- Brief description of archival/manuscript holdings