Our collections contain thousands of unique documents, plans and photographs that tell the story of over 850 years of York’s history. Our oldest document dates from 1155, the most recent from this year.
We also look after thousands of books, historic newspapers and maps about the city and surrounding area.
The civic archive contains the records of City of York Council and its predecessors, whilst our community collections include personal and family papers as well as the records of York-based charities, businesses and community groups.
Our online catalogue is searchable by keyword, and is one of the best places to start your research. We also have many collections catalogues on The National Archives’ Discovery database and the Archives Hub website, you can browse our collections guides, or use our online collections to support your research.
You can also search our library catalogue to find items held and our special collections and local history library.
We have created introductory pages for begining your research with Family History, Local History and House History.
Harmful Language Statement
The collections held by Explore York Archives document all aspects of life in York, from 1155 to the present day and these records cover a diverse and wide range of histories and subjects. The records have been catalogued and described over the past decades and that is not a process that can ever be fully neutral. As such, it is not unusual to encounter language or content within our collections and catalogue that is sensitive, offensive, discriminatory, or outdated. We fully acknowledge that encountering terminology of this nature while researching may be upsetting for our users.
At Explore York Archives we have begun the process of reviewing our current and historic collections information and cataloguing and descriptive practices. In our catalogue we try not to replicate any offensive and discriminatory language found in the content of our collections. However, in some cases some harmful and offensive terminology may be retained within our catalogue entries and/or descriptions to ensure the records are kept in their historical context, and to facilitate discovery of these collections.
This does not mean that Explore York Archives condones or endorses the use of the language or content that may be found in our collections or on our catalogue.
Going forward we will be reviewing and updating our policies concerning harmful language and content in our collections periodically. If you have any feedback about our policy or have encountered harmful language or content in our collection, then please do get in touch with us via our email: archives@exploreyork.org.uk