Torchwood Archive

The Torchwood Archive was a department of the Torchwood Institute tasked with storing and cataloguing alien artefacts, originally operating at the Torchwood House and millennia later on a space station at the very edge of human space. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

History
The Archive was started in 1897 at Torchwood House by Archie. The first item catalogued in it was the Red Key, known as Object 1. He used a knowledge sponge to store information. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

During World War II, the Archive's artefacts were relocated to a coal mine in Wales to protect them from bombing. Bilis Manger infiltrated the mine, having been seeking a way to access the Archive's relics, but became trapped there due to the radium in the area around the mine, which he suspected was deliberately arranged by the archivist. Bilis eventually escaped with the aid of Jill Anderson who had been sent to catalogue all the artefacts stored in the mine. (AUDIO: Curios)

Archie continued to maintain the Archive into the 21st Century. He was once contacted by Owen Harper from Torchwood Three. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

Torchwood Three had a separate archive where they kept alien technology, as did Torchwood London. At the Torchwood Hub, the archive consisted of large brick-lined chambers containing crates and shelves of anonymous boxes; it was Ianto Jones' domain. It stored items from 1885 onwards. A section of the archive was also devoted to records left behind by deceased Torchwood members, including photos, videos, an ancient daguerreotype and an old wax cylinder. The emotional amplifiers were stored in the Archive. (PROSE: Slow Decay) Ianto also kept Lisa Hallett in a chamber in the archive, originally set aside for the remnants of Operation Goldenrod. He didn't like Tosh looking around unsupervised. (PROSE: Slow Decay, TV: Cyberwoman)

The Archive still existed in the 43rd century. Captain Zachary Cross Flane represented it in the Walker Expedition, as he acknowleged whilst addressing the Beast. (TV: The Satan Pit) The Archive sent Zachary and Chloe to Emperor Merdiven's opening of his mother's library. Zachary deduced Merdiven was an imposter who had arranged the event to kill those who might realise the truth and left him trapped in the late empress' library. (AUDIO: Empire of Shadows)

Jayne Kadett told the Tenth Doctor that an interplanetary info-thief stole files from the Torchwood Archive and used them to build his own army of Cybermen, which he planned on selling as hi-tech soldiers to the highest bidder. However, the Cybermen turned on him, converted him into a Cyberdrone and a Cyber-Leader took charge as the Cybermen invaded Centuria. (COMIC: The Power of the Cybermen, Time of the Cybermen)

Jeremiah Bash Henderson visited the Torchwood Archive with Object 1, wanting to know more about its history and how he and Norton Folgate could use it to restore the Committee. He gave a fake Object 1 to the Data Core, which opened the locket and triggered an explosion that destroyed the Archive. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)