Consulting the archives

A rich and diverse heritage

Print this page
Send by mail
RSS feed
Contact us
Add to Favourites
Increase font size
Decrease font size
share

Societe Generale's Historical Archives Department offers researchers a diverse and rich range of archives collections, both in terms of the subjects of the files and also the type of documentation and additional materials. These documents cover the Group's history and cover all sectors of the economy, covering a large area of the globe. Iconographic documents are also accessible (maps, posters, photos and postcards), as is a collection of objects including examples of furnishings used in the bank. This heritage is exposed regularly.

Renovation work at the central branch (Paris)

Behind the scenes at the Central Branch

Discover the behind the scenes world of the renovations undertaken at the central branch of Societe Generale in 2011 in a film dedicated to the craftsmen and their trades: gilders, mosaicists, marblers, masons and master glaziers.

Consulting the archives

A very diverse collection available to researchers

The preserved collections come from various organisations: "traditional" banks (Société Générale), regionally oriented banks (Société centrale de banque, Credit foncier d'Algérie et de Tunisie, Banque de Salonique, Crédit du Nord and Sogénal); former investment banks (Banque Mirabaud) and former merchant banks (Banque de l'Union parisienne). Their contents cover a variety of different themes: documents relative to the creation of these companies, their capital structure, the composition and functions of their boards of directors and general meetings; documents from their personnel departments and their finance departments.
List of preserved collections »

Exhibitions

Société Générale recounts its history and heritage through exhibitions

Some 350 blueprints of bank branches and central office buildings, around 900 posters, 25,000 photos and postcards and a substantial collection of objects (old furnishings, calculating machines, publicity items) can help reconstitute the working world of a branch or banking service of times gone by. The exhibitions "The engineer, the bank and Art nouveau" (2004) and "Rugby in the Années folles" (2007) are visible on an interactive terminal at the "Agence centrale", 29 Boulevard Haussmann, Paris.