National Archives of Guyana (Walter Rodney Archives)

Overview

The National Archives of Guyana, also known as the Walter Rodney National Archives, is the legal depository for official government records and local newspaper publications in Guyana, located at D'Urban Park on Homestretch Avenue in Central Georgetown.

History

The archive was organized in 1958, originally located in a building on Main Street; its holdings trace to the Dutch colonial period, when documents were stored in the Dome of the Parliament Buildings. In 1972 the archive became a department of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, and the National Archives of Guyana Act of 1982 formally established it as a department with an Archivist as officer-in-charge reporting to the Minister, along with a National Archives Advisory Committee. The institution moved into its current building on Homestretch Avenue in 2007-2008 and was renamed in memory of historian and political activist Dr. Walter Rodney, who was assassinated in Georgetown in 1980. In 2012 a Digitization unit was created with funding from the Government of Guyana and UNESCO.

Collections, Holdings, and Publications

The archive's holdings, measuring roughly 700 meters of textual material, 10,000 printed items, and 55 meters of newspapers across 32 titles, include material from the Dutch colonial period (Berbice, Essequibo, and Demerara) dating to 1735, and extensive nineteenth-century records from the colonial government of British Guiana. Approximately 5% of holdings date from the 18th century, 55% from the 19th century, and 40% from the 20th century. Collections include Court of Policy Records, the Official Gazette, Colonial Office Records, Governor's Dispatches, and Indian indentured-immigration records, certificates, registers, and letter books. In 2013 the archive launched the Guyana Immigration Records Digitization Project as an online search tool, though as of 2017 much of the planned digitization had not been completed.

Access and Usage

The archive's stated mission is to acquire and preserve all public records of value for historical research or official purposes. Visitors have reported that access does not require an appointment, visa, or special identification, though a small number of finding aids, largely catalogued in 1994, are available on-site rather than online.