Modernization
Learn more about government’s intention to modernize the museum to protect our historic holdings and provide better access to our collections.
As legislated in the Museum Act (2003), the Royal BC Museum and BC Archives is the archival repository for the province of British Columbia. We collect archival records from private individuals, families, institutions and organizations that are historically significant to the province. We have over 20,000 boxes of private records, some dating back to the 1700s.
Private records can be searched online in both our archives collections search and our library collections search. Please see our search collections page for instructions on how to use these databases.
Access to and use of private records at the BC Archives may be subject to restrictions. Please visit our access restrictions page for more information.
To learn more about how we acquire records, or to submit an archival donation request, please see