Access

You will have access to the Branobel Digital Archives by clicking here:

The Branobel Digital Archives

This website is linked to a searchable digital archives database containing digital copies of the original historical documents related to the Branobel Company 1873-1969 and its activities in local and global arenas. The Digital Archives bring together archival material from various countries and sources, such as: company files, correspondence, private letters, personal diaries, pictures, books, documents and images.

The main purpose of the Branobel Digital Archives is to enable and stimulate international research in hitherto dispersed and partly forgotten historical source material. This has been made possible thanks to a number of Sponsors and Partners. A wide variety of archive holders and owners of source material in various countries are partners in the Branobel History Project.

Initially, the contents of the Digital Archives are limited to about 67.000 scanned pages of historical archive material, mainly from Swedish sources. However, the volume of the database is constantly increasing with new additions of digitalised archives and collections. Scanning operations by project partners in Azerbaijan and Georgia will increase the depth and breath of the database considerably thanks to international archive cooperation agreements relating to the Branobel History Project and the financial support by local sponsors.

Language

The Digital Archives are searchable in English only. Free text searches can be performed in English across volume descriptions and inventories. Volume notes and inventories for all material have been translated into English before becoming part of the digital archives.

The historical material speaks to us in several languages. Most of the company related documents were written in Russian, whereas business correspondence with stakeholders in other countries, was often carried out in French, German or English. The archives of the Nobel brothers themselves, other members of the Nobel family, and those of the many Swedish employees in Baku and their families are mainly in Swedish. Additional languages may also be found.

Using the Digital Archives

You can make searches in several archives at the same time and you can limit your searches to a certain time period or document type. Most of the information about the documents is registrered down to the volumes level.

Once you have logged in, help for using the Digital Archives can be found under “Help”.

Records

A folder is a collection of document files that equals a physical volume or box as you can see it in the physical archives. Normally, a collection of volumes with similar content constitutes a series of records. An example of a series of records is “Correspondence between the head office in Saint Petersburg and the engineers office in Baku”. Well defined archives can consist of many series. The archive is a collection of series of records that come from the same company or, in some cases, the same regional office or department.

Practical tips

Instead of trying to find a single document through the document search, you can try to search the folders where the document might be located, and then navigate through the folder. You can always make a note of the page number in the folder, and return to the same page at a later stage.

In case of a problem

Please contact the Centre for Business History in Stockholm by email to info@naringslivshistoria.se

© Copyright Centre for Business History in Stockholm 2011.