Public Archives of Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia Archives is a governmental archival institution serving the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. The archives acquires, preserves and makes available the province's documentary heritage – recorded information of provincial significance created or accumulated by government and the private sector over the last 300 years.

The idea for a provincial archives and a Provincial Archivist first took root on April 30, 1857 when a resolution was put forward in the Legislative Assembly, making it the first provincial archives in Canada. Thomas Beamish Akins, a lawyer, historian, archivist, and author, was appointed Nova Scotia's first Commissioner of Public Records from 1857 until his death in 1891.