HelveticArchives – the archive database of the Swiss National Library

Full Text Search

Use the full text search to find archive estates and documents as well as addresses of memory institutions (archives, libraries, museums). For the search you can use any names or words that occur in the database.
Choose further search options to include other words, to search in a certain level of description or to limit the search on available photos.

Field search

Use the field search if you want to search selectively and know the meaning or use of the individual fields.
E.g. you can find all Swiss Memory Institutions that have an ISIL or enter a VZ acronym in the corresponding field to find the address of the relating library. The field search usually results with a smaller number of hits as the full text search with the same search word.

Archive plan search

The archive plan search enables you to navigate in the hierarchical tree structure of the archive to overview the various fonds or to selectively access known fonds.
The view of the archive plan can be constrained to a certain unit of description to allow a specific search within the chosen unit of description.

Descriptor search

Descriptors are standard index terms which describe persons, families, institutions, places and subjects.
Descriptors cannot be found with the full text search; therefore additional results are possible with the descriptor search. If the descriptor to be found does not exist, this does not mean that there are no associated archive items.

HelveticArchives is the online database for the archival collections of the Swiss National Library (NL). The art collection of the Centre Dürrenmatt Neuchâtel as well as the archive inventories of the prints and drawing collections, the Federal Archives of Historical Monuments, Swiss Literary Archives and special collections of the NL.

Furthermore HelveticArchives includes the catalogue of biografical newspaper atricles.