Anarchist archives

[1] Anarchism, an anti-authoritarian political philosophy of self-governed societies without hierarchies, has spread chiefly through published propaganda literature: pamphlets, books, and newspapers.

[5] These independent archives tend to have a narrower focus than their institutional counterparts, whose other collections are either unrelated or part of larger leftist or labor categories.

These institutions tend to have larger acquisition budgets than the small, independent collections, as well as more advanced machinery and more accessible space and staffing.

Older, rare documents are most likely housed in institutions, who often arrange to receive an activist's personal papers and can afford to maintain them.

[4] Other notable anarchist collections include Das Anarchiv (Basel), Anarchistisches Dokumentationszentrum (Wetzlar, Germany), Centro Studi Libertari "Giuseppe Pinelli" (Milan), Centre d'Etudes et de Documentation Librairie (Lyon), Fundación Salvador Seguí (Madrid), and the Centre International de Recherches sur l'Anarchisme (CIRA) in Lausanne, Switzerland, Marseille, France and Fujinomiya, Japan.