Memory of the World Register – Europe and North America
The first inscriptions on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register were made in 1997. By creating a compendium of the world's documentary heritage—manuscripts, oral traditions, audio-visual materials, library and archive holdings—the program aims to tap on its networks of experts to exchange information and raise resources for the preservation, digitization, and dissemination of documentary materials. As of 2013, 193 documentary heritages have been included in the Register, among them recordings of folk music, ancient languages and phonetics, aged remnants of religious and secular manuscripts, collective lifetime works of renowned giants of literature, science and music, copies of landmark motion pictures and short films, and accounts documenting changes in the world's political, economic and social stage. Of these, 97 properties were nominated by countries from the region of Europe and North America.
List by country/territory
Documentary heritage | Country/Territory | Custodian, Location | Year inscribed | Reference | ||
Codex Purpureus Beratinus | National Archives of Albania, Tirana | 2005 | ||||
Mashtots Matenadaran ancient manuscripts collection | Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, Yerevan | 1997 | ||||
First Byurakan Survey | Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory | 2011 | ||||
Collection of note manuscripts and film music of Composer Aram Khachaturian | House-Museum of Aram Khachaturian | 2013 | ||||
Vienna Dioscurides | Austrian National Library, Vienna | 1997 | ||||
Final Document of the Congress of Vienna | Austrian State Archives, Vienna | 1997 | ||||
The Historical Collections of the Vienna Phonogrammarchiv | Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna | 1999 | ||||
Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer | Austrian National Library, Vienna | 2001 | ||||
The Vienna City Library Schubert Collection | Vienna City Library, Vienna | 2001 | ||||
The Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem of the Austrian National Library | Austrian National Library, Vienna | 2003 | ||||
Brahms Collection | Society of Friends of Music, Vienna | 2005 | ||||
Collection of Gothic Architectural Drawings | Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna | 2005 | ||||
The Tabula Peutingeriana | Austrian National Library, Vienna | 2007 | ||||
The Bibliotheca Corviniana Collection | ,,,,, |
| 2005 | |||
Arnold Schönberg Estate | Arnold Schönberg Center Private Foundation | 2011 | ||||
Mainz Psalter at the Austrian National Library | Austrian National Library, Vienna | 2011 | ||||
The Documents on the Semmering Railway from the Imperial & Royal Historical Museum of Austrian Railways | Technisches Museum Wien | 2017 | ||||
Medieval manuscripts on medicine and pharmacy | Institute of Manuscripts of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Baku | 2005 | ||||
The copy of the manuscript of Mahammad Fuzuli's "divan" | Institute of Manuscripts of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences | 2017 | ||||
Radziwills’ Archives and Niasvizh Library Collection | ,,,,, |
| 2009 | |||
Business Archives of the Officina Plantiniana | Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp | 2001 | ||||
Archives Insolvente Boedelskamer Antwerpen | Municipal Archives Antwerp, Antwerp | 2009 | ||||
The Archives of the University of Leuven |
| 2013 | ||||
Universal Bibliographic Repertory | Mundaneum asbl | 2013 | ||||
Manuscript collection of the Gazi Husrev-Beg Library | Gazi Husrev-beg's Library | 2017 | ||||
The Sarajevo Haggadah manuscript | The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina | 2017 | ||||
Enina Apostolos, a Cyrillic manuscript fragment of the 11th century in Old Bulgarian language | SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library, Sofia | 2011 | ||||
Boril's Synodicon | SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library, Sofia | 2017 | ||||
Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander | , | SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library, Sofia | 2017 | |||
Hudson's Bay Company Archival records | Archives of Manitoba, Winnipeg | 2007 | ||||
Quebec Seminary Collection, 1623-1800 | Musée de la civilisation, Québec | 2007 | ||||
Neighbours, animated, directed and produced by Norman McLaren in 1952 | National Film Board of Canada, Montréal | 2009 | ||||
The Discovery of Insulin and its Worldwide Impact | Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library | 2013 | ||||
Marshall McLuhan: The Archives of the Future |
| 2017 | ||||
Mixed Traces and Memories of the continents - The Sound of the French people of America | Cinémathèque québécoise | 2017 | ||||
Philosophical Nachlass of Ludwig Wittgenstein | ,,, |
| 2017 | |||
Collection of medieval manuscripts of the Czech Reformation | National Library of the Czech Republic, Prague | 2007 | ||||
Collection of Russian, Ukrainian and Belorussian émigré periodicals 1918-1945 | National Library of the Czech Republic, Prague | 2007 | ||||
Collection of 526 prints of university theses from 1637-1754 | National Library of the Czech Republic, Prague | 2011 | ||||
Libri Prohibiti: Collection of periodicals of Czech and Slovak Samizdat in the years 1948-1989 | Libri Prohibiti Library | 2013 | ||||
Archives of Leoš Janáček | Moravian Museum, Department of the History of Music | 2017 | ||||
Camocio Maps | , |
| 2017 | |||
The Kynzvart Daguerreotype – The Birth of Modern Visual Media | National Heritage Institute, Czech Republic | 2017 | ||||
The Linné Collection | Danish National Library of Sciences and Medicine, Copenhagen | 1997 | ||||
Manuscripts and correspondence of Hans Christian Andersen | Royal Library, Copenhagen | 1997 | ||||
The Søren Kierkegaard Archives | Royal Library, Copenhagen | 1997 | ||||
Archives of the Danish overseas trading companies | Danish National Archives, Copenhagen | 1997 | ||||
El Primer Nueva Coronica y Buen Gobierno | Royal Library, Copenhagen | 2007 | ||||
Sound Toll Registers | Danish National Archives, Copenhagen | 2007 | ||||
MS. GKS 4 2°, vol. I-III, Biblia Latina. Commonly called "the Hamburg Bible", or "the Bible of Bertoldus" | Royal Library, Copenhagen | 2011 | ||||
The Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection | , |
| 2009 | |||
The Baltic Way - Human Chain Linking Three States in their Drive for Freedom | ,, |
| 2009 | |||
The A.E. Nordenskiöld Collection | University Library, Helsinki | 1997 | ||||
Archive of the Skolt Sámi village of Suonjel Suenjel | The Sámi Archive | 2015 | ||||
Original Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen | National Library of France, Paris | 2003 | ||||
Introduction of the decimal metric system, 1790–1837 | National Historical Archives Centre, Paris | 2005 | ||||
Lumière Films | Archives Françaises du Film | 2005 | ||||
Bayeux Tapestry | William the Conqueror Centre, Bayeux | 2007 | ||||
Library of the Cistercian Abbey of Clairvaux at the time of Pierre de Virey |
| 2009 | ||||
The Beatus Rhenanus Library | Humanist Library, Sélestat | 2011 | ||||
Bannière Register at Chatelet, Paris, during the reign of François I | National Historical Archives Centre, Paris | 2011 | ||||
Louis Pasteur's Archive |
| 2015 | ||||
The Mappa mundi of Albi | Médiathèque d'Albi Pierre-Amalric | 2015 | ||||
The Appeal of 18 June 1940 | , |
| 2005 | |||
The moving picture shows of Émile Reynaud | , |
| 2015 | |||
Archives of Père Castor | Community of Briance, Sud Haute-Vienne | 2017 | ||||
"Description of Georgian Kingdom" and the Geographical Atlas of Vakhushti Bagrationi | National Archives of Georgia | 2013 | ||||
Georgian Byzantine Manuscripts | National Centre of Manuscripts | 2011 | ||||
Manuscript Collection of Shota Rustaveli's Poem "Knight in the Panther's Skin" | , | National Centre of Manuscripts | 2013 | |||
The Oldest Manuscripts Preserved at the National Archives of Georgia | National Archives of Georgia | 2015 | ||||
The Tetraevangelion-palimpsest | National Archives of Georgia | 2017 | ||||
Early cylinder recordings of the world's musical traditions in the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv | Museum of Ethnology, Berlin | 1999 | ||||
Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony n°9, d-minor, op.125 | State Library, Berlin | 2001 | ||||
The literary estate of Goethe in the Goethe and Schiller Archives | Goethe and Schiller Archives, Weimar | 2001 | ||||
42-line Gutenberg Bible, printed on vellum, and its contemporary documentary background | Göttingen State and University Library, Göttingen | 2001 | ||||
METROPOLIS -Sicherungsstück Nr. 1: Negative of the restored and reconstructed version 2001 | Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation, Wiesbaden | 2001 | ||||
Illuminated manuscripts from the Ottonian period produced in the monastery of Reichenau | Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München | 2003 | ||||
Kinder-und Hausmärchen | Brother Grimm's Museum, Kassel | 2005 | ||||
Universalis Cosmographia | , | Library of Congress, Washington D.C. | 2005 | |||
Letters from and to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz within the collection of manuscript papers of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz | Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library, Hannover | 2007 | ||||
Song of the Nibelungs, a heroic poem from mediaeval Europe |
| 2009 | ||||
Patent DRP 37435 "Vehicle with gas engine operation" submitted by Carl Benz, 1886 | Landesmuseum für Technik und Arbeit in Mannheim | 2011 | ||||
Construction and Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Two-Plus-Four-Treaty of 1990 | State Archive of Hamburg | 2011 | ||||
Lorsch Pharmacopoeia | Bamberg State Library | 2013 | ||||
Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei, draft manuscript page and Das Kapital. Erster Band, Karl Marx's personal annotated copy | , | International Institute of Social History | 2013 | |||
Nebra sky disc | Halle State Museum of Prehistory | 2013 | ||||
The "Golden Bull" – All seven originals and the "King Wenceslaus’ luxury manuscript copy" of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek | , |
| 2013 | |||
Documents representing the beginning and the early development of the Reformation initiated by Martin Luther |
| 2015 | ||||
Autograph of h-Moll-Messe by Johann Sebastian Bach | State Library, Berlin | 2015 | ||||
The Golden Letter of the Burmese King Alaungphaya to King George II of Great Britain | ,, |
| 2015 | |||
Al-Masaalik Wa Al-Mamaalik | , | 2015 | ||||
Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial | Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv | 2017 | ||||
Constitutio Antoniniana | Universitätsbibliothek Giessen | 2017 | ||||
Derveni Papyrus | Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki | 2015 | ||||
Kálmán Tihanyi's 1926 Patent Application "Radioskop" | National Archives of Hungary, Budapest | 2001 | ||||
Tabula Hungariae | , | National Széchényi Library, Budapest | 2007 | |||
János Bolyai: Appendix, scientiam spatii absolute veram exhibens. Maros-Vásárhelyini, 1832 | Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest | 2009 | ||||
The Csoma Archive of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Science | Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest | 2009 | ||||
Semmelweis' discovery | Semmelweis Museum, Library and Archives of the History of Medicine | 2013 | ||||
Three documents related to the two most outstanding results of the work of Lorand Eötvös | Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest | 2015 | ||||
1703 Census of Iceland | National Archives of Iceland | 2013 | ||||
Book of Kells | Trinity College Library | 2011 | ||||
The Irish Folklore Commission Collection 1935-1970 | National Folklore Collection, Newman Building, University College Dublin | 2017 | ||||
Pages of Testimony Collection, Yad Vashem Jerusalem, 1954-2004 | Yad Vashem | 2013 | ||||
Rothschild Miscellany | The Israel Museum | 2013 | ||||
Aleppo Codex | The Israel Museum | 2015 | ||||
The Papers of Sir Isaac Newton | The National Library of Israel | 2015 | ||||
Israel Folktale Archives | Department of Hebrew and Comparative Literature, The University of Haifa | 2017 | ||||
The Malatesta Novello Library | Malatesta Novello Library, Cesena | 2005 | ||||
The Historical Diocesan Archive of Lucca | Historical Diocesan Archive, Lucca | 2011 | ||||
The Newsreels and photographs of Istituto Nazionale Luce | Istituto Luce, Roma | 2013 | ||||
The Collection of Barbanera Almanacs | Fondazione Barbanera 1762, Spello | 2015 | ||||
The Work of Fray Bernardino de Sahagún | ,, |
| 2015 | |||
The Codex purpureus Rossanensis | Diocesan Museum, Rossano | 2015 | ||||
Antônio Carlos Gomes | , |
| 2015 | |||
Dainu skapis – Cabinet of Folksongs | National Library of Latvia, Riga | 2001 | ||||
The Family of Man | Clervaux Museum, Clervaux | 2003 | ||||
Bibliothèque Ets Haim – Livraria Montezinos | Portuguese-Jewish Seminary Ets Haim, Amsterdam | 2003 | ||||
Archives of the Dutch East India Company | ,,,, |
| 2003 | |||
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank | Anne Frank House, Amsterdam | 2009 | ||||
Desmet Collection | EYE Film Instituut | 2011 | ||||
The Leiden La Galigo manuscript | , | 2011 | ||||
Archive Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie | ,, | Zeeuws Archief | 2011 | |||
Dutch West India Company archives | ,,,,,,, |
| 2011 | |||
Babad Diponegoro or Autobiographical Chronicle of Prince Diponegoro. A Javanese nobleman, Indonesian national hero and pan-Islamist | , |
| 2013 | |||
Selected data collections of the world's language diversity at the Language Archive | The Language Archive of the Max-Planck-Institute for Psycholinguistics | 2015 | ||||
Utrecht Psalter | Utrecht University | 2015 | ||||
The Archive of the Amsterdam Notaries 1578-1915 | Amsterdam City Archives | 2017 | ||||
Westerbork films | Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision | 2017 | ||||
Aletta H. Jacobs Papers | , | Atria, Institute on Gender Equality and Women’s History | 2017 | |||
First Catechism Written in Papiamentu Language | National Archives of the Netherlands Antilles, Willemstad | 2009 | ||||
The Leprosy Archives of Bergen | City Archives and Regional State Archives of Bergen, Bergen | 2001 | ||||
Henrik Ibsen: A Doll's House | National Library of Norway, Oslo | 2001 | ||||
Roald Amundsen's South Pole Expedition |
| 2005 | ||||
Thor Heyerdahl's Archives |
| 2005 | ||||
Sophus Tromholt Collection | Bergen University Library | 2013 | ||||
The Castbergian Child Laws of 1915 | Archives of the Storting | 2017 | ||||
Nicolaus Copernicus' masterpiece De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium | Jagiellonian University, Cracow | 1999 | ||||
Warsaw Ghetto Archives | Jewish Historical Research Institute, Warsaw | 1999 | ||||
The Masterpieces of Fryderyk Chopin | The Fryderyk Chopin Society, Warsaw | 1999 | ||||
The Confederation of Warsaw of 28 January 1573: Religious tolerance guaranteed | The Central Archives of Historical Records, Warsaw | 2003 | ||||
Twenty-One Demands, Gdańsk, August 1980: The birth of the Solidarity trade union – a massive social movement | The Polish Maritime Museum, Gdansk | 2003 | ||||
National Education Commission Archives |
| 2007 | ||||
Archives of the Literary Institute in Paris | Association Institut Littéraire "Kultura", Paris | 2009 | ||||
Codex Suprasliensis – Mineia četia, Mart | ,, |
| 2007 | |||
Archive of Warsaw Reconstruction Office | State Archives of the Capital City of Warsaw | 2011 | ||||
Collections of the 19th century of the Polish Historical and Literary Society / Polish Library in Paris / Adam Mickiewicz Museum | Association de la Bibliothèque Polonaise de Paris | 2013 | ||||
Peace treaties concluded from the mid-15th century to late-18th century between the Kingdom of Poland and the Ottoman Empire | The Central Archives of Historical Records, Warsaw | 2013 | ||||
The Book of Henryków | Kuria Metropolitalna Wrocławska | 2015 | ||||
Files and library of the Unity of the Brethren |
| 2015 | ||||
Documents of Polish radio intelligence from the period of the Battle of Warsaw in 1920 | Central Military Archives of Poland | 2017 | ||||
Jürgen Stroop’s Report | Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation | 2017 | ||||
The Act of the Union of Lublin document | ,,,, | The Central Archives of Historical Records, Warsaw | 2017 | |||
Letter from Pêro Vaz de Caminha | National Archives, Lisbon | 2005 | ||||
Corpo Cronológico | Institute of National Archives, Lisbon | 2007 | ||||
First flight across the South Atlantic Ocean in 1922 | Arquivo Histórico da Marinha – Biblioteca Central da Marinha | 2011 | ||||
Arquivos dos Dembos / Ndembu Archives | , | Arquivo Nacional de Angola, Luanda | 2011 | |||
Journal of the first voyage of Vasco da Gama to India, 1497-1499 | Biblioteca Pública Municipal do Porto | 2013 | ||||
Official Records of Macao During the Qing Dynasty | , | Torre do Tombo National Archive, Alvalade, Lisbon | 2017 | |||
Register Books of visas granted by Portuguese Consul in Bordeaux, Aristides Sousa Mendes | Instituto Diplomático do Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros | 2017 | ||||
Archangel Gospel of 1092 | Russian State Library, Moscow | 1997 | ||||
Khitrovo Gospel | Russian State Library, Moscow | 1997 | ||||
Slavonic publications in Cyrillic script of the 15th century | Russian State Library, Moscow | 1997 | ||||
Newspaper collections | Russian State Library, Moscow | 1997 | ||||
Maps of the Russian empire and its collection of the 18th century | Russian State Library, Moscow | 1997 | ||||
Russian posters of the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries | Russian State Library, Moscow | 1997 | ||||
The Historical Collections of St. Petersburg Phonogram Archives | The Institute of Russian Literature | 2001 | ||||
Ostromir Gospel | Russian National Library | 2011 | ||||
Tolstoy's Personal Library and Manuscripts, Photo and Film Collection | State Museum-Estate of Leo Tolstoy Yasnaya Polyana | 2011 | ||||
The Laurentian Chronicle 1377 | Russian State Library, Moscow | 2013 | ||||
The Sobornoye Ulozheniye of 1649 | Russian State Archives of Ancient Acts | 2015 | ||||
Album of Indian and Persian Miniatures from the 16th through the 18th Century and Specimens of Persian Calligraphy | Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, Russian Academy of Sciences | 2017 | ||||
Nikola Tesla's Archive | Nikola Tesla Museum, Belgrade | 2003 | ||||
Miroslav Gospel – Manuscript from 1180 | National Museum, Belgrade | 2005 | ||||
Telegram of Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on Serbia on 28 July 1914 | Archives of Serbia | 2015 | ||||
Illuminated Codices from the Library of the Bratislava Chapter House | National Archives, Bratislava | 1997 | ||||
Basagic Collection of Islamic Manuscripts | University Library, Bratislava | 1997 | ||||
Mining maps and plans of the Main Chamber - Count Office in Banská Štiavnica | State Central Mining Archives | 2007 | ||||
Santa Fe Capitulations | Archive of the Crown of Aragon, Barcelona | 2009 | ||||
Treaty of Tordesillas | , |
| 2007 | |||
Llibre del Sindicat Remença | Girona Municipal Archive | 2013 | ||||
The Decreta of León of 1188 - The oldest documentary manifestation of the European parliamentary system |
| 2013 | ||||
Materials Related to the Keicho-era Mission to Europe Japan and Spain | Sendai City Museum, Sendai | 2013 | ||||
Indigenous language vocabulary from the New World translated into Spanish | General Archive of the Indies, Seville | 2015 | ||||
The Manuscripts of the Commentary to the Apocalypse in the Iberian Tradition | , |
| 2015 | |||
Archives of Santiago Ramón y Cajal and the Spanish Neurohistological School | Instituto Cajal-CSIC | 2017 | ||||
The Codex Calixtinus of Santiago de Compostela Cathedral and other medieval copies of the Liber Sancti Jacobi: The Iberian origins of the Jacobian tradition in Europe | , |
| 2017 | |||
The General Archive of Simancas | Archivo General de Simancas | 2017 | ||||
Astrid Lindgren Archives | The Royal Library, Stockholm | 2005 | ||||
Emmanuel Swedenborg Collection | The Royal Library, Stockholm | 2005 | ||||
Ingmar Bergman Archives | Swedish Film Institute | 2007 | ||||
The Alfred Nobel Family Archives |
| 2007 | ||||
Codex Argenteus – the ‘Silver Bible’ | Uppsala University Library | 2011 | ||||
Stockholm City Planning Committee Archives | Stockholm City Archives | 2011 | ||||
Dag Hammarskjöld Collection | The Royal Library, Stockholm | 2017 | ||||
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Geneva and Neuchâtel Collections |
| 2011 | ||||
The Montreux Jazz Festival: Claude Nob's Legacy | Montreux Jazz Festival Foundation | 2013 | ||||
Bibliotheca Bodmeriana | Martin Bodmer Foundation | 2015 | ||||
Documentary heritage of the former Abbey of Saint Gall in the Abbey Archives and the Abbey Library of Saint Gall |
| 2017 | ||||
Statements made by Indigenous Peoples at the United Nations 1982 to 2015 | Directorate of the Topkapı Palace Museum | 2017 | ||||
Collection of Jewish Musical Folklore | Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, Kiev | 2005 | ||||
Documentary Heritage Related to accident at Chernobyl | State Archival Service of Ukraine | 2017 | ||||
The Battle of the Somme | Imperial War Museum, London. | 2005 | ||||
Hereford Mappa Mundi | The Hereford Mappa Mundi Trust, Hereford | 2007 | ||||
Magna Carta, issued in 1215 |
| 2009 | ||||
Historic Ethnographic Recordings at the British Library | British Library | 2011 | ||||
Membership Application Certificates | Institution of Civil Engineers | 2013 | ||||
Arthur Bernard Deacon collection MS 90-98 | , | Royal Anthropological Institute, London | 2013 | |||
Autograph First World War Diary of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, 1914-1919. | National Library of Scotland | 2015 | ||||
The Churchill Papers | Churchill College, Cambridge | 2015 | ||||
The West India Committee collection | ,,,, | Sidney Martin Library | 2015 | |||
The Gertrude Bell Archive | Robinson Library, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne | 2017 | ||||
The Orwell Papers | University College London | 2017 | ||||
An African Song or Chant from Barbados | , | Gloucestershire Archives | 2017 | |||
The ‘Shakespeare Documents’, a documentary trail of the life of William Shakespeare | , |
| 2017 | |||
The Wizard of Oz, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | George Eastman House, Rochester | 2007 | ||||
John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman Film and Video Collection, 1950–2000 | Smithsonian Institution, Suitland | 2009 | ||||
Landsat Program records: Multispectral Scanner sensors | U.S. Geological Survey | 2011 | ||||
Silver Men: West Indian Labourers at the Panama Canal | ,,,,, |
| 2011 | |||
Permanent Collection of the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project | Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project | 2013 | ||||
Moses and Frances Asch Collection. Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution | Smithsonian Institution, Suitland | 2015 | ||||
The Villa Ocampo Documentation Center | , |
| 2017 |