FranceArchives Portail National des Archives (France)

History and Founding

FranceArchives is the national archival portal of France, launched in March 2017 by the Ministry of Culture in association with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and the Armed Forces. It was developed by the French Interministerial Service of Archives (Service interministériel des Archives de France) to serve as a single point of access for finding documents held across France's distributed archival system.

Collections and Holdings

FranceArchives aggregates finding aids and collection descriptions from approximately 70 partner institutions, including five national archives bodies (the three National Archives sites, the Diplomatic Archives, and the Military Archives), 43 departmental archives, 10 municipal archives, and 10 major public institutions such as the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Musée du Quai-Branly. The portal contains around 48,000 finding aids and more than 9 million descriptions of archival materials. Linked open data technologies are used to enhance cross-institutional search.

Notable Materials Related to Journalism and Media

Through its partner institutions, FranceArchives provides pathways to press collections, audiovisual archives, and media-related fonds held at the departmental and national level. The portal indexes finding aids for collections at La Contemporaine (a major French archive of contemporary history and media) and other institutions holding press and broadcast materials.

Access and Usage

FranceArchives is freely accessible online at francearchives.gouv.fr. Searches are conducted via a search bar on the homepage and can be filtered by archive type, date, or subject. The portal is intended for researchers, genealogists, and citizens seeking administrative records. Access to individual documents is governed by the policies of each partner institution.