New York State Archives

The New York State Archives was established in 1971 to preserve and make accessible recorded evidence documenting New York State's history, governments, events, and peoples from the 17th century to the present. Full operations began in 1978 when the organization's storage and research facility opened in the Cultural Education Center. The Archives preserves and provides access to over 250 million documents dating from the period of Dutch and British colonial rule during the 17th and 18th centuries through the modern day. The State Archives preserves records from the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of state government. Topics covered in those records include relations with Native Americans, the Erie Canal and westward expansion, industrial development, labor, the rise of the modern social welfare system, public education, public health, the environmental movement, and New York State citizens' participation in numerous military conflicts. The collection includes nearly documents relating to the administration of the colony of New Netherland. In addition, the archives maintains the records of the construction of the Erie Canal and New York State Barge Canal including maps, engineering drawings and glass plate negatives. Finally, the collection includes over motion picture film scripts from the 1920s to the 1960s. The Archives' web site provides online access to over digital images of maps, photographs and other materials of interest as well as an on-line catalog with descriptions of all records in the collection. The New York State Archives is a unit of the Office of Cultural Education within the New York State Education Department, with its main facility located in the Cultural Education Center on Madison Avenue in Albany, New York, United States. The New York State Library and the New York State Museum are also located in the Cultural Education Center.