Researching the League of Nations Archives

A Guide to Consultation and Research Techniques

The League of Nations archives have been fully digitized and are accessible on the UN Archives Geneva platform.


The League of Nations (1920-1946) was the first global international organization aiming to establish peace and cooperation and was the precursor to the United Nations.

UN Archives Geneva Platform

Contact and Visitor Information

The archives of the League of Nations are constituted by three fonds:

  • The Secretariat Fonds: all the material produced or received at the headquarters of the League of Nations.
  • The Refugees Mixed Archival Group Fonds (Nansen Fonds): linked to the activities of Fridtjof Nansen as League of Nations High Commissioner (for Prisoners of War, and later for Russian Refugees).
  • The External Fonds: groups of files constituted outside the Secretariat by more or less autonomous bodies established by the League of Nations.

The archives of the League include also various collections:

The League of Nations Archives were digitized thanks to the LONTAD project

At the end of October 2022, the Total Digital Access to the League of Nations Project (LONTAD) completed its core operations. On time and on budget after five years, the entirety of League of Nations archives was digitized and made freely available (14.2 million pages of materials).

The project was the culmination of the effort of more than 30 people working during its duration on a multitude of archival and technical activities. In addition to the “basic” scanning, the project restored and preserved the original documents, including replacing more than 8,000 boxes. The long-term digital preservation of more that 220 terabytes of data that were generated during its work was also ensured, guaranteeing online digital access long into the future.