Our story

We are the National Archives. Here, you find the answers to questions about your own life, our history and our society. We help you to gain new insights by keeping stories alive. By giving you eternal access to our national memory. 

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We are the National Archives

We are the National Archives. Here, you find the answers to questions about your own life, our history and our society. You can gain insight into how events of the near and distant past influence our lives today.

We help you to gain new insights by keeping stories alive. By giving you eternal access to our national memory. Because we believe that everyone should be able to find out what has been said and done. The whole story. 
That is why we inspire and encourage the government to collect and manage their data in a smart and sustainable manner. We use specialist knowledge and inventive technology to integrate all data into the National Archives. Not only today, but also tomorrow and in the distant future.

The rich collection of the National Archives of the Netherlands consists of 137 km of documents, 15 million photographs and nearly 300,000 historical maps and drawings and 800 terabyte of digital files.

The National Archives is accessible to everyone who wants to do research. We organize exhibitions, educational programs and a cultural program.