Museum archives serve to provide information about a museum’s various exhibitions as well as its history. Some materials in a museum archive may include organizational records, collection records, and other papers related to the museum’s subject of interest.

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- Academic
- Business (for profit)
- Government
- Tribal 
- Church
- Film
- Non-profit
- Digital
- Picture
- Museum

Types of Archives

Museum Archives Guidelines. Society of American Archivists. https://www2.archivists.org/groups/museum-archives-section/museum-archives-guidelines. 

Museum Archives Guidelines

Types of Archives. Society of American Archivists. https://www2.archivists.org/usingarchives/typesofarchives. 

Types of Archives Reference

Archives located in colleges, universities, and other educational institutions; they preserve institutional history and serve the academic communities

Academic Archives

Owned by a private business. They store and maintain documents and items relating to the history of the company, helping them to maintain control over their brand image

Business (for profit) Archives

Can be owned by either local or federal governments. Store information on the history of the community they serve

Government Archives

Archives that include documents such as manuscripts, papal records, church records, oral histories, and more all relating to a church’s history

Church Archives

A collection of films and documents on film history

Film Archives

Includes historical societies and not-for-profit businesses and foundations. They are often funded by private donors

Non-profit Archives

A digital archive is a collection of digitized historical documents stored in an electronic repository. Digital records can be openly accessed online or electronic copies can be requested through the repository's document delivery service. 

Digital Archives 

A picture archive is a permanent collection of images, such as physical photographs or digital files. These collections are at times protected from commercial use unless a fee is paid.

Picture Archives

“Introduction to Archival Research: Types of Archives.” Research Guides. University of Colorado Boulder Libraries, July 3, 2021. https://libguides.colorado.edu/c.php?g=1154758&amp;p=8428086.  

A type of archive that documents the histories (local, cultural, and governmental) of indigenous communities. 

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