CERN Archives

The Archives of CERN

The CERN Archives serve as the institutional repository for documentary material relating to the Organization from its foundation to the present day. They preserve a wide range of records, including correspondence, memoranda, reports, photographs, notes, historical objects, and other documents created or received during the mandates of successive Directors-General and senior management, as well as records produced by the CERN Council and its subordinate committees, Departments, and Experiments.

The Archives also hold the papers of Wolfgang Pauli, comprising correspondence, manuscripts, photographies and other materials documenting his scientific work, together with his Nobel Prize awarded in 1945. Pauli’s archival collection was donated by his wife in 1960 to CERN after his death in 1958.

The CERN Archives operate in accordance with the code of ethics of the International Council on Archives (ICA).

History

Initially launched as a project in 1979 to support the writing of CERN’s history on the occasion of its 25th Anniversary, the CERN Archives have since evolved into a permanent service with the mission of “supporting and preserving CERN’s documentary heritage for future generations.”

In 1979, the then Director-General, John Adams, requested Division Leaders to make relevant documentation available to the Historical Archives and to appoint Divisional Records Officers (DROs) within each department to ensure the systematic identification and transfer of historically significant records.

The CERN Archives were formally established in 1981, and the volume of archival holdings has continued to grow steadily since that time.

In 1997, a CERN Working Group on digital records was established, culminating in the publication, in 2001, of a report on Long-Term Electronic Archiving (LTEA).

For further information, please visit the CERN Archives website.