Dates
The archive spans from about 1933-2007. The mainpart is from after 1970, when Astrid Lindgren's employment at the Rabén & Sjögren publishing house ended. In conjuction with this some of the archival documents seem to have been discarded. The parts of the archive which was kept in her home, mainly the manuscripts, stenographic notes and newspaper clippings, seem relatively complete. Especially the manuscripts collection (L230:4) contains works also before the 1930s, that is to say before Astrid Lindgren's official debute 1944. Through Astrid Lindgren AB some of the material after her passing in january of 2002 has been added to the archive, especially condolence letters and press clippings. The clippings cover the period 1944-2007.

Scope
The archive is probably one of the most extensive collections that an individual Swede has ever left behind them. The archive is about 140 shelf meters and is comprised of up to thousands of archive boxes of different sizes. The total collection of letters to Astrid Lindgren - letters from adults and children, private correspondence, business correspondence, greeting cards and more- is close to 75 000. About 27 000 letters from 11 8000 correspondents have been catalogued in a correspondent registry. To that is uncatalogued collections of greeting cards, fan mail, childrens' letters and more. (See L230:1). The letters from Astrid Lindgren is comparatively few and are mainly copies. Only rarely did Astrid Lindgren copy her outgoing letters. A couple of original letters are included in the letters from Astrid Lindgren, all of them donated to the library after her death. The registry of letters from Astrid Lindgren is comprised of 900 copies to arounb 530 people. There are also around 2 600 letters written by her secretary during 1994-2002 (See L230:2)

The archive also contains around 600 manuscripts, 660 stenographic notebooks and 850 photographs. Separate lists of these can be found in the uploaded finding aid. Biographic documents, newspaper clippings (approximated at 100 000), posters, theater programs, dedicated books and other printed material as well as other material is presented more briefly. You can also find 23 thematically structured dossiers which are presented in the uploaded finding aid.

Finally the archive also contains the part of Astrid Lindgrens library which was previously kept in here summer recidence in Furusund. The Furusund library, as well as the library in here apartment in Stockholm have been catalogued in Libris.

Tillägget innehåller brev, manuskript, anteckningar, biographica, pressklipp, samt material rörande Kerstin Thorvalls föräldrar och släktingar. Tyngdpunkten ligger på ungdomsåren, i synnerhet 1940-talet, men här finns även material från 50-, 60- och 70-talet.

Materialet rör främst perioden innan Thorvall hade etablerat sig som konstnär. Det omfattar handlingar från hennes uppväxt och skolgång i Sollefteå, Eskilstuna och Uppsala. Det speglar även tiden i Stockholm, dit hon flyttade efter studentexamen för att utbilda sig till modetecknare på Beckmans skola 1945-1947. Under 1940-talets senare hälft förde modetecknandet henne även till Vingåker och Paris. Dessa olika perioder har lämnat sina spår i brevens fysiska ordning (se rubriken -Arkivets struktur-). Breven till Kerstin Thorvall är till antalet ca 430 och kommer huvudsakligen från ungdomsvänner, familj och släktingar. Här finns bland annat brev från Thora Thorvall, Lars-Erik Falk och ett odaterat brev från Astrid Lindgren.

Tillägget innehåller material från fler arkivbildare än Kerstin Thorvall, bland annat brev och manuskript efter fadern Åke Thorvall (1889-1936) och brev till modern Thora Thorvall (1898-1980, född Christianson) och fastern Dagny Thorvall (1883-1933).