The Guardian News & Media archive preserves and promotes the histories and values of the Guardian and the Observer newspapers. It collects and makes accessible material that provides an accurate and comprehensive history of the papers, including theguardian.com. The archive forms part of the Guardian Foundation.
The archive holds official records of the Guardian and the Observer and also seeks to acquire material from people who have been associated with the papers. As well as corporate records the archive therefore holds correspondence, diaries, notebooks, original cartoons and photographs created by people who have worked for either paper.
Please note that the archive does not hold copies of the newspapers themselves. Information on how to access past articles from the papers is available here.
An oral history project has been undertaken to record the memories of people who have worked for either the Guardian or the Observer over the last 70 years. These range from an Observer printer who started in the composing room in the 1920s to more recent star columnists. Written memoirs of former Guardian and Observer staff have also been collected, recording many different experiences and events relating to the papers’ histories.
Archival material is made available for research purposes as soon as possible after it has been catalogued. Descriptions are be available on our online archive catalogue. For summary information about the different collections, please see our corporate collections, personal collections and collections in focus pages. If you would like to visit to consult any of the material, or have an enquiry relating to the collections, please contact us.
More information about how the archive collects, preserves and makes material available can be found in the archive’s policies.