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Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records, a division of the Secretary of State


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History and Archives Division


Melanie Sturgeon, PhD
Division Director

The State Archives, located at the Polly Rosenbaum Archives and History building 1901 West Madison, will now be open Monday thru Thursday from 9:00 am to 3:00, except for emergencies. If you have an emergency or a complicated research topic please call 602-926-3720 to speak to an archivist. If you leave a message please remember we cannot make out-of-state phone calls.

Arizona Town Hall Meetings: Statewide Collections Assessment
Click here to register for the Town Hall Meetings taking place in October 2010. The objectives of the Town Hall Meetings include establishing a unified understanding of basic preservation principles, including the major causes of deterioration in all media types; provide pragmatic, strategic approaches for minimizing these problems and improving collection-wide preservation.

 

Arizona History
Arizona Capitol • Territorial Period (29 December 1863- 14 February 1912)

• Statehood Period (14 February 1912- )

State Map (with counties and list of cities)

Featured Document
Research at the Arizona State Archives
winged_victory Reference request form

Biographical Database

Genealogical Resources

What to expect at the State Archives
     (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Services to Genealogists and Historical Researchers

Resources and Services to State, County and Local Government Offices

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)


Projects at the State Archives
01-3887 Capturing Arizona Stories

Archival Collections
wpa_cover Legislators' Papers

State and Local Government Records

Private Manuscript Collections
Arizona Collection
winged_victory The Arizona Collection features many materials generally not available elsewhere. The book collection covers a wide range of  subjects related to Arizona and the Southwest.  Areas of strength include: Older Arizona history titles, Archaeology, Indians of Arizona, City & county budgets & audits, County materials (e.g. traffic safety studies), City directories, Arizona high school & college yearbooks, Bancroft’s Works (vols. 1-39), World Almanac (1894-present), Periodical collection (including many older editions from the Arizona  Historical Review to Wrangler) and Biographical and subject vertical files including a separate collection relating to Arizona state legislators.

You may find most, but not all, of our books by searching our online library catalog. Additionally, you we have a list of our peridical titles and our holdings.
Map Collections
Map The Arizona State Archives contains approximately 32,000 maps of Arizona, dating from the 1860s to current. They include territorial maps dating from the 1860s, county and city maps dating from the 1890s, historic topographic maps and Sanborn Fire Insurance maps and Maricopa County plat maps up to 1959. Other collection strengths include: maps showing irrigation and urban development of the Salt River Valley, state highways, and railroad right-of-ways. The collection also houses maps distributed through the Federal Depository Library Program.

Many of our maps are cataloged. You may search for them using our online library catalog.

If you have any questions please contact our maps librarian.
Photograph Collection
Territorial Fair The photograph collection at the Arizona State Archives consists of 125,000 images. The photographs in the Arizona State Archives are located in state, county and local goverment records as well as in discrete photograph collections. Our digital imaging program has resulted in the digitization of over 35,000 of those images. Please visit our photograph search page. Please visit our photograph webpage or visit the Arizona Memory Project
Newspaper Collections
Territorial Fair

The Arizona State Archives is home to the one of the largest collection of Arizona newspapers. A vast collection of over 500 titles on microfilm, the newspapers come from all over the state as well as a small collection of out of state newspapers from California, New Mexico, Colorado and Oklahoma.

Our oldest newspaper dates back to 1859 with some of our microfilm as current as last month of this year. We have an impressive amount of microfilm readers as well as reader printers available for public use and offer a quiet, relaxed environment ideal for research.
We also house an extensive collection of hardcopy newspapers including titles such as the Tombstone Epitaph and the Journal Miner of Prescott.

See Also: Current Arizona newspapers at the Law and Research Library.

Special Guides
reading_room_1 Guide to Water Collections in the Arizona State Archives

Arizona Water Survey: Examination of Water Collections in Arizona Repositories

Winnie Ruth Judd Materials
Conservation
Michael McColgin About our Conservation Programs
    Disaster Preparedness

Disaster Planning for Rural Libraries in Arizona

Disaster Planning for Government Agencies in Arizona
Research Tools
az_orangesHow to analyze a document.
   (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

How to read a photograph.
   (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

• How do I start my research?
Events
Arizona Sunset National History Day in Arizona

Arizona Archives Month

 

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