Since 2018, we have been regular visitors to IKEA’s headquarters in Älmhult, where we support their corporate archivist on various archive projects.
The IKEA Corporate Archive, housed at the company’s global head quarters in Älmhult, and close to the corporate museum, houses material going all the way back to the company’s founding in the 1940s as a small mail order company. Its document shows the company’s development to start designing, producing and selling furniture and home decoration, and opening stores across the world. Some of the highlights are ads from across the decades, correspondence from founder Ingvar Kamprad, and – of course – the IKEA catalogue. In addition, there is a large image and film section to the archive.
The IKEA Corporate Archive has since the fall of 2018 made use of our archive consultancy services on a regular basis. Our archive consultants will travel to Älmhult and on location assist the in-house archivist as required. Some of it is classical archive work: culling, ordering and listing. Some of it is contributing with archive specific knowledge, such as how to set up a future e-archive and how to integrate records management into the archive solutions and processes.
– We are a number of highly competent coworkers here at IKEA Corporate Archive, but at the same time, I’m a currently the only trained archivist. Working alongside archivists from the Centre for Business History does not just help with specific projects, but also opens up for collegial discussions about archive practices and solutions, discussions that I otherwise have a hard time having, says Tony Nilsson, head archivist at IKEA and our main contact.
Do you also need help handling your historical material or your archive?
