from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archives 03/30/09

The word "archives" can refer to any organised body of records fixed on media. The management of archives is essential for effective day-to-day organisational decision making, and even for the survival of organisations. Archives were well developed by the ancient Chinese, the ancient Greeks, and ancient Romans. Modern archival thinking has many roots in the French Revolution. The French National Archives, who possess perhaps the largest archival collection in the world, with records going as far back as A.D. 625, were created in 1790 during the French Revolution from various government, religious, and private archives seized by the revolutionaries.