The History Archive of the Aristotle University was established at the Faculty of Philosophy during the first years of its operation. The archive material was classified and catalogued by the Professor of Modern Greek History Apostolos Vakalopoulos a few decades later.
The archive is housed in a special room at the Library of Modern and Contemporary History, on the fourth floor of the new building of the Faculty of Philosophy. The collections, either donated or bought, include original historical documents, copies of documents or manuscripts, newspapers, history maps, microfilms, as well as rare documents from various archives and libraries – in Greece and abroad – related to modern and contemporary Greek history.
In particular, the History Archive of the University of Thessaloniki contains: pages from the newspaper Hermes and other newspapers of Thessaloniki (published from 1876 to 1901), printed statutes, regulations, council reports, reports of the Charitable Society, the Society of the Friends of Education and other education institutions, as well as of hospitals and public welfare societies, unions and associations of Thessaloniki (of the 1872-1917 period), photographs of manuscripts and documents from libraries and archives of Mount Athos, Athens, the Kapodistrian Archive, documents from the Mamuka Archive (of the 1822-1835 period), original unbound documents from Syros and Siatista (from the 17th to the 20th century), private documents from Thasos and Macedonia (of the 1797-1904 period), as well as 6 Turkish documents and a decree (of June 7th, 1810) of Sultan Mahmud the 2nd regarding the island of Thasos.
 
Maps, manuscripts and documents
The Archive also contains about 100 historical and geophysical maps (of Europe, the Ottoman Empire, and Greek areas) dating from medieval and modern times, and 170 volumes of photographed, rare travel texts and history dissertations of the 16th-19th century. There is also a significant number of microfilms regarding manuscripts, documents and rare printed material from various libraries and archives, as well as a collection of clippings from Greek and foreign newspapers and journals which were published during 1968-1974 and concerned the Greeks abroad.
Moreover, the Archive of Miltos Spyrolilios was added recently, at the initiative of Professor Emeritus Vasilis Kontis. This archive contains a wealth of material: original documents and, mainly, handwritten copies of documents of the Archive of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which concern the history of Albany and the Northern Epirus region up to the third decade of the 20th century.
The above collections are available to researchers, postgraduate students and PhD candidates for consultation. They are also used for other kinds of studies carried out at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.