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Historical Archives, International Labour Office (ILO)
4, route des Morillons
CH 1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland
Telephone: +41.22.799.81.06 or Reading Room: +41.22.799.78.57
E-mail: archives@ilo.org Fax: +41.22.798.86.85
Opening hours:
Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 12 noon; 2 to 5 p.m. (by appointment only).
Closed on official holidays (please enquire in advance).
The Reading Room is located on R2-38 (ground floor north, room 38).
The Archives cover the entire administrative cycle of records and serve as a repository for Headquarters units and Field Offices. The Archives contain correspondence and administrative files transferred from the Registry and decentralized filing stations.
Files and records may be of interest to external researchers for their legal, political, administrative, technical and historical value. They are made available after thirty years according to the Rules for Access to the ILO Historical Archives.
The Historical Archives consist of about 70,000 pre-war and wartime files (1919-1947), 200,000 post-war files (1948-1978), together with a number of special collections, including the ILO Directors and Directors-General Archives - Albert Thomas (1920-1932), Harold Butler (1932-1938), John G. Winant (1939-1941), Edward Phelan (1941-1948), David A. Morse (1948-1970) and C. Wilfred Jenks (1970-1973); C. Wilfred Jenks’ private papers (1920-1973); the records of the International Labour Office (Basel, 1890-1919) and photographic and audiovisual collections. These collections represent a total of more than 7,000 linear meters of occupied shelving.
Filing system
The ILO archives and record management systems have from the outset been based on the concept of a central registry. Each major activity of the Office forms the subject of a file series, identified mnemonically by one, two or more letters (e.g. F = Financial Questions; RL = Relations; TUR = Trade Union Rights; PROG = Programme Planning). Each main subject is then divided into further subdivisions (e.g. the country concerned) according to the amount of information available. There are also separate series for the ILO policy bodies (GB = Governing Body; ILC = International Labour Conference).
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