According to one scholar, "half the history of France overseas was represented in the mass of papers" first assembled in Aix in 1966.
The archives groups its holdings by ministry, territory, document format (images, maps); it also has non-government materials.
[2] In 1986 the main national archives in Paris transferred to Aix its records of the "Section outre-mer.
"[1] In 1995 the archives received substantial additional materials generated by colonial offices.
(fr) The archives has published inventories of some of its records, including those related to the colonial administration of Algeria, French Equatorial Africa, and French Indochina; the governmental Secrétariat d'Etat à la Marine and Ministère des Colonies [fr]; bagnes (prisons); private organizations such as the Comité central français pour l'Outre-Mer; and individuals such as Madeleine de Lyée de Belleau [fr], Léonce Jore, and Ho Chi Minh.