Library & Archives
Ask an archivist
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The League of Nations Archives consist of the original files of the Secretariat of the League, such as correspondence, draft reports and internal communications, as well as the official documents and publications of the League, the records of external League offices and commissions, and photographs and other visual materials, covering 1919-1946. In addition, the Archives maintain records of organizations and individuals involved in international peace movements and personal papers of figures associated with the League, its work and international issues of the time, spanning 1870-1986. The UNOG Archives contain the records of UNOG itself, as well as the records from some individuals and UN-related agencies headquartered in Geneva, most notably the Economic Commission for Europe. These materials date from 1945 to the present. More detailed information is available in the catalog and in the Archives Research Guides.
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The United Nation Archives maintain an online catalogue, which is complete to the series level for the complete collection. If you cannot locate specific materials in the catalogue, please contact us, as more detailed descriptions are in progress, and some portions. The Archives Resource Guides provides an overview of some fonds and collections, as well as links to digitized content and additional external research tools.
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The research of specific names in the large volume of documents constituting the Nansen Fonds for refugees is quite complex. Indeed, a central repository with the names of all refugees does not exist. Some lists of names, as well as the correspondence exchanged between the refugees themselves and the Nansen Office, are scattered in various record groups, but are often incomplete and can require significant time to review. As a result, it is not possible for our staff to perform thorough searches for individuals or families. However, researchers would be most welcome to our reading room to conduct their research in situ. In order to better identify the folders that might be of interest, researchers can consult our online catalogue and do a search by keyword.
The catalogue is available at the following URL: http://biblio-archive.unog.ch/suchinfo.aspx
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The UNOG archives reading room (B.340) is located on the 3rd floor of the library building (B.building) in the Palais des Nations.
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You can access the debates of the Assembly here on the UN Archives Geneva platform:
Assembly - UN Archives Geneva (ungeneva.org)
Digitization of the Minutes of the Council is not yet completed. Only sessions 1 to 15 are available for the moment. You will find them here:
Minutes - UN Archives Geneva (ungeneva.org)
For the time being, you can find the minutes of the Council in The League of Nations Official Journal, which is available through the database HeinOnline (Ask your library for access):
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The archives do not provide scans of the documents. However, researchers are allowed to photograph them in the archives reading room.
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At the moment, only the documents distributed to the Council "C" (e.g. C.395.1928.V), and the documents distributed to the Council and to the States Members "C...M" (e.g. C.196.M.70.1927.V) are available online, through the UN documents search engine. The reference of the documents can be found in the guide: League of Nations Documents and Serial Publications, 1919-1946.