The Scottish Life Archive collects, records and preserves documentary and illustrative evidence of Scotland's material culture and social history.

It was established in 1959 and the majority of the collection dates from the 1880s to the present day, but there is some material dating from 1700. The archive includes aspects of Scotland's rural, urban, maritime and industrial communities, such as housing, work, warfare, leisure, customs and religion, all arranged by subject.

The Scottish Life Archive consists of a variety of material: an extensive photographic collection and other illustrative material such as drawings, prints, posters, postcards and video recordings. It is also home to a unique collection of manuscripts, letters, diaries, books, leaflets, oral recordings, maps, plans, trade catalogues, paper ephemera and an extensive newspaper cuttings collection.

You can access examples of our collections in NMS collections search (https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/search-our-collections/) and SCRAN (www.scran.ac.uk).

The library holds the finding facility for the archive which contains photographs, references and press clippings.