Since it was founded in 1935, the institute has collected archives from individual women and women's organisations. Aletta Jacobs’ papers – which consisted of books and letters, among other things – constituted the basis of the initial collection.
Since 1870Atria holds over 700 archives, ranging in size from a single sheet of paper to a 130 boxes. They include the papers of individuals, together with records of private organisations, forming a documentary story of women’s movements and feminisms in the Netherlands.
The material in the collection is divers, encompassing letters, diairies, notebooks, illuminated adresses, music manuscripts, transcripts of speeches, drafts of books and articles, scrapbooks, photographs, works of art, meeting papers, logbooks, maps and more.
The archival collection, called Internatonal Archives for the Women’s Movement since 1935, relates predominantly the Netherlands . The collection is strongest from the 1870s onwards, reflecting the beginnings and development of the Dutch women’s movements.