Nationaal Archief Curaçao

Overview

The Nationaal Archief Curaçao (Archivo Nashonal Kòrsou) is the national archive of Curaçao, managing the government records of the country of Curaçao and its legal predecessor, the Netherlands Antilles. It is housed in a landmark Scharloo building known locally as "the Wedding Cake."

History

The archive's predecessor, the Centraal Historisch Archief (CHA), was established on August 26, 1969 to preserve government documents in orderly condition and make them available to the public and the island government. Under the archive ordinance of November 7, 1989, the transfer period for government records was set at 40 years; a 2008 revision reduced this to 20 years, aligning with international openness standards. In the country's early period the CHA transferred government documents from 1828 to 1939. The institution has since become the Nationaal Archief following Curaçao's 2010 constitutional restructuring within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Collections, Holdings, and Publications

The archive manages roughly 4 kilometers of accessible documents, maps, drawings, photographs, negatives, slides, and videotapes, alongside about 15 kilometers of unprocessed Curaçao government records and roughly 25 kilometers of unprocessed Netherlands Antilles records. Its holdings include the civil registry indexes, a genealogical database of more than 800,000 searchable names, and the Curaçao slave registers (1829-1863), digitized in 2020 with more than 25,000 searchable names. The archive also holds the Catecismo Cortico, the oldest known book printed in Papiamentu (1837), inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World register in 2009.

Access and Usage

The archive offers free public consultation of its inventories and digital image bank, with staff assistance for research questions, and provides educational programs and exhibitions on Curaçao's history for students, researchers, and policymakers.