The Art Gallery of New South Wales was the first state gallery in Australia to establish an Archive and it is one of the few national institutions today collecting, preserving and making available for research primary material on Australian visual art. The Archive includes both the historical and administrative records of the Gallery along with diverse manuscript collections. Included among these are the papers of Margaret Preston, Max Dupain, Francis Lymburner, John Passmore, David Strachan, Grace Crowley, Frank and Margel Hinder, Arthur Murch, Joshua Smith, Weaver Hawkins, the Barry Stern Galleries and the Macquarie Galleries.

A regular programme of exhibitions and publications from the Archive serve to showcase its collections. The Archive’s holdings can be accessed via the internet, on the National Library of Australia's Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts (RAAM).