Archivio Storico Olivetti

For anyone drawn to Ivrea's industrial story, this is where the evidence lives. The Olivetti Historical Archive keeps the company's papers, photographs, posters, products and publications from 1908 onwards, and interprets that material through its public exhibition programme.

Why it matters

Olivetti was far more than a typewriter maker: it was a laboratory of twentieth-century Italian design, computing and social ideas, and Ivrea became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018 largely because of it. The permanent exhibition, "Olivetti #StoriaDiInnovazione", traces the company's development from early mechanical calculators through the Lettera 22 and into the computer era, pairing documents and objects with the social and cultural dimensions of the Olivetti project. The archive also supports research into how the family firm reshaped the city.

What to notice

The collections are organised into nine distinct holdings, covering the company itself, a library, an audio archive, film and video, printed documentation, a picture collection, a newspaper library, a photograph library and a collection of objects and models. In the exhibition, look for the advertising posters, which trace how graphic design carried the Olivetti brand into everyday Italian life, and the material on the Lettera 22, arguably the most recognisable portable typewriter ever produced. Its digital interpretation includes themes such as women's work at Olivetti, the Compasso d'Oro design awards and the company's advertising imagery. The archive also gathers oral testimonies through its "La mia Olivetti" project, an unusual record of how employees remember the factory community.

Context and history

The archive was set up in 1986 on the initiative of Paolo Mancinelli, then Olivetti's secretary general, in collaboration with the Fondazione Adriano Olivetti, and it took shape between 1987 and 1994 under the scientific direction of Giovanni Maggia, the foundation's secretary general. On 12 March 1998 it became an independent body, the Associazione per l'Archivio Storico Olivetti, and that October the regional archival superintendency formally recognised its holdings as being of notable historical interest. Since then the association has broadened its mission from conservation to public engagement, developing exhibitions, a digital museum, a specialist library and research resources. Its remit covers both the company and the Olivetti family, which makes it a key stop for anyone studying Italian industrial, design or social history, and a natural companion to Ivrea's UNESCO itinerary.