La contemporaine

La contemporaine is a French library, museum and archive center specialized on 20th century history. It was named "Bibliothèque de documentation internationale contemporaine" until 2018. The institutions has two centers, one in the Paris Nanterre University campus which hosts the archives and the library. The museum is located within the premises of the Hôtel National des Invalides in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. The contemporary opens in October 2021, a new facility that brings together all the collections at the entrance to the university campus of the University of Paris-Nanterre.

The institution was originally established in 1914 as the Library-Museum of the War, and became part of the Ministry of Public Education in 1917. In 1925, the President of the Republic performed its inauguration within the Museum of the War in the Pavillon de la Reine at the Château de Vincennes.