The idea to preserve the archival original files as a whole was more and more put into force during the 19th century. In 1898, Dutch archivists Samuel Müller, Johan A. Feith und Robert Fruin theoretically formulated the provenance principle in their work Handleiding voor orden en besehrijven van archiven. In Slovenia, the first to establish this principle as the basic rule of archival work was Josip Mal, although already Anton Aškerc followed the principle in his work in the Municipal Archives of Ljubljana. This year we also celebrate the event when fifty years ago the archivists met in Paris and decided to establish the International Archival Council. In the time of its existence the IAC has developed firm organisational foundations based on regional and professional principle. The International Archival Council has initialed numerous projects, publications and debates on different congresses and international conferences. Bustling activities of the IAC has also involved the co-opcrution of other non-government organisations.