The history of the National Museum in Krakow Archives does not go back as far as 1879, when the institution itself was founded; in fact, it is nearly a century shorter.

The first information on where these documents were held is to be found in the record of an official inspection conducted by the State Archives in December 1965. In this report, we read that the documents were segregated, divided up by thematic scope. The body of files relating to acquisition of collections, archival searches, loans of museum holdings, and records on holdings was stored in the Inventories Office (currently the Chief Inventory Officer’s Department). Post-war administrative files, however, were kept in the offices and workrooms.

The historically valuable financial and accounting documentation, personnel files, and some of the technical and operations papers relating to the museum’s work up to the outbreak of World War II were initially stored in one of the rooms in the Main Building and later removed to the Czapski Palace to form the core of the document repository that later became known as the Administrative Archives.

compiled by: Diana Błońska - NNK Archives