Архів Львівського національного університету ім. Івана Франка

Archive was formed in 4 September 1894 when it became separate institution of the Lviv University. Its first resources were document created before 1848 which by then were already not in the administration usage. Its first location was a room in one of the university buildings at Nicholas st. 4 (today Hrushevskoho 4).

First directior of the Archives was professor of Lviv University Ludwik Finkel (1894-1930 years), who at that time taught history at the Faculty of Philosophy and had considerable experience in Archival service.

In the years 1894-1898 archive was in a process of organization, collecting, recording and systematizing acquired material.

Over the next decade Archive staff worked and registered enourmous on records from 1785-1805. At that time archive is becoming more and more popular among the Polish researchers (from 1871 Lviv University was a Polish University).

During I World War I Archive have not experienced significant losses as the most valuable of its materials were taken to Vienna or deposited in the Museum of Dzieduszyckis. The main part of the archival fond stayed at the University and was closely monitored by its staff.

Archive continue to operate and develop in Interwar period. It published its new thematically organized inventory. Since the archival fond was constantly growing in 1930 Archive was moved to the new building at Marshalkovska 1 ( street today . 1 University ) , where he was placed on the first floor. In the same year first director of the archive L. Finkel passes away.

After his death Theophilus Modelsky, known palaeographer and medievalist, becames a new archive director . Modelsky was a former student of Finkel, himself already an renown scholar with a archival experience.

In 1930s Archive is expanding not only collecting documents from the various University departments but copying documents connected to the history of the University from the other archives. This decade is the time of dynamic development of the Archive, its growing cooperation with other Polish and European archives and libraries.

In the years 1939-1941 after the Soviet conquest of Lviv new authorities changed the organization and general source of the authority of the archive.

In 1949, the Archive again was established as a separate unit. From 1947 they were operating under supervision of the State Regional Archives. At that time University lost its importance, together with interest of its history, what affected situation of the Archive. Soviet archival principles did not provide opportunities for archivists to actively participate in research or to build relationships with scientific institutions in the country , let alone abroad. Therefore, the work of archivists was designed to perform record keeping functions.

Archive contains documents connected to the history of the Lviv University from late XVIII century until today.