The National Archives at Kew holds documents dating back more than 1,000 years. The institution is open to the public and free to visit, offering a point of access to records that stretch far beyond the lifetime of the organisation itself.<\/p>\n
Its modern home has a history of its own. The original Kew building was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1977 as an additional home for public records. The site had previously accommodated a First World War hospital and was later used by government departments, according to the supplied institutional history.<\/p>\n
The National Archives was created in 2003, bringing together the Public Record Office and the Historical Manuscripts Commission. In October 2006, it merged with the Office of Public Sector Information, which incorporated His Majesty\u2019s Stationery Office. Those connections help explain why its work extends beyond keeping historical documents.<\/p>\n
The institution selects records for preservation, cares for their condition and provides public access. It also advises government on information practices and helps other archives and members of the public understand how to care for documents. Its responsibilities connect the creation of records with their eventual preservation and reuse.<\/p>\n
There is an important geographical distinction for anyone beginning research: Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate national archives, through National Records of Scotland and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
Kew\u2019s collections therefore represent both a historical resource and an ongoing process. Decisions about which documents to retain, how to preserve them and how people can consult them help determine what future researchers will be able to discover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A thousand years of documents, and a continuing job preserving tomorrow\u2019s history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}