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Welcome to the Guide to the Collections of The Rothschild Archive

The Rothschild Archive London is an independent charity. The purpose of the Archive is to collect, preserve and promote the archives of the Rothschild businesses and family. The Trustees of The Rothschild Archive Trust administer the Archive as an independent charitable trust in purpose-built premises made available within the offices of the London business.

Scope of the collections

The records of the London firm, N M Rothschild & Sons, and papers of the French bank of M M de Rothschild Fréres form the core of the Archive collection, reflecting the activities of the other Rothschild banks through many series of correspondence and accounts that circulated between them. The Archive in London houses the records of the London banking house (which themselves include often detailed correspondence from the continental houses in Frankfurt, Paris, Vienna and Naples), together with deposits of family papers from members of the Rothschild family that the Archive has been fortunate to attract, reflecting their estates, collecting tastes and interests. The papers of de Rothschild Frères, are held on deposit at the Archives Nationales du Monde du Travail in Roubaix, France.

Navigating The Guide

The Guide is arranged into the following sections:

  • The London banking house: Original business records and artefacts created, acquired or held by the London banking house, N M Rothschild (1809-1836) and its successor firms, N M Rothschild & Sons (1836-1970), N M Rothschild & Sons Limited (1970-2009), Rothschild Group (2009-2015) and Rothschild & Co (2015-present). The shorthand ‘NMR’ is used to denote the London business.
  • The Frankfurt banking house: Original business records and artefacts created, acquired or held by the Frankfurt banking house, M A Rothschild, and its successor firm, M A von Rothschild & Söhne.
  • The Paris banking house: Original business records and artefacts created, acquired or held by the Paris banking house, M M de Rothschild Fréres, held by The Rothschild Archive London. Researchers should note that the The Trustees of the Rothschild Archive are responsible for the collection of archives of de Rothschild Frères, located in the Archives Nationales du Monde du Travail in Roubaix, France. The collection spans the dates 1811-1974, and has been catalogued with the reference 'Fonds 132 AQ'.
  • The Vienna banking house: Original business records and artefacts created, acquired or held by the Vienna banking house, S M von Rothschild. 
  • The Naples banking house: Original business records and artefacts created, acquired or held by the Naples banking house, C M de Rothschild  & figli.
  • Rothschild family papers: Original records and artefacts created, acquired or held privately by members of the Rothschild family; including family papers (arranged by name of family member); Named Collections; papers relating to Rothschild estates; papers relating to institutions created by, or supported by members of the Rothschild family (mainly published works and secondary sources).
  • Collections created by The Rothschild Archive: Collections created by the Rothschild Archive, including Audio-visual Collection, Art Collection, Oral History Collection, and The Rothschild Archive Library.

Searching The Guide

A free text search of Guide entries may be made by typing your search term in the 'Search the site' box at the top of this page. Please note that searching on a broad term, for example 'gold', will produce a large number of results. Alternatively you may browse the descriptions of records in each section.

In this online Guide, descriptions of records dated later than 1945 may be given to indicate that a series continues beyond 1945. The inclusion of such descriptions does not mean that these records are available for consultation.