The aim of the IMU Archive is to record and reflect the activity and history of the IMU and of its commissions and committees in all their facets. Until 2010, the IMU Archive was located with the IMU Secretary of the time and thus moved whenever a new Secretary was elected. In addition, there were archives located in Zurich and Helsinki. There the original records go back until the early fifties when the IMU was re-established. Find here information on the history of the IMU.
With the establishment of a permanent IMU Secretariat in 2011, all archival material has since been permanently located in Berlin. On the occasion of the inauguration of the IMU Archive at the IMU Secretariat in Berlin, Olli Lehto gave a speech on the IMU Archive´s history.

The records of the IMU were sorted and organized for the first time at the archive of the University of Helsinki in 1996, which today is known as the Helsinki Subfond (SF1) of the IMU Archive in Berlin, published in the IMU Bulletin 40, 1996. Since then, the content and scope of the archive have greatly expanded. It has changed from paper letters and documents to mostly digital records. The Helsinki Subfond (SF1) was supplemented with other subfonds, mainly from IMU Presidents and Secretaries of the terms since the first catalogue, as well as from officers of the commissions and committees. A long-term storage strategy has been implemented to safeguard the growing email archive and born-digital documents. Additionally, pictures, books and artefacts enrich the collection of the IMU Archive. However, there are still gaps in the inventory.

The IMU Archive serves mainly to support the work of the IMU Executive Committee. The material is also available for historical research. Some documents, such as those concerning IMU prizes, are subject to certain restrictions in accordance with the IMU Archiving Guidelines.

If you would like to use the IMU Archive, please first have a look at the current “Finding Aids”:
Hierarchical thesaurus - Topics on the IMU and its commissions and committees.
Tectonic – Structure of the IMU Archive into subfonds, series and files.

Interested persons or organizations are invited to support the collection of the IMU Archive by offering documents, photos, books, or other material, in digital as well as analogue representation, which may fill gaps in the documentation of the history of the IMU and its commissions and committees.

Please contact the IMU Archivist for any requests or information on IMU historic material: archivist@mathunion.org.