Its holdings aid research on national and international academic, university and technical history.

The institutional holdings stretch back to the foundation of the Federal Polytechnic School (now ETH Zurich) in 1855.

For instance, the Historical School Board Archive (1854–1992) contains the minutes and files of ETH Zurich’s long-standing Executive Committee.

The private archives include engineers (e.g. Carl Culmann, Robert Maillart, Aurel Stodola), scientists (e.g. Albert Einstein documentation by Carl Seelig, Vladimir Prelog, Leopold Ružička, Rudolf Wolf), mathematicians (e.g. Paul Bernays, Heinz Hopf, Hermann Weyl, Eduard Stiefel, George Pólya) and even psychologists (e.g. C. G. Jung Collection).

The archives of individual academic societies and associations with ties to ETH Zurich round off this group of holdings.