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1990 Web Archive Documentation

Comprehensive reference for the 1990 Web Archive platform. Learn how to authenticate, query our 4.2M+ page repository, submit URLs for preservation, and integrate archival data into your applications.

Introduction

The 1990 Web Archive provides structured access to digitized remnants of the early internet (1990–1999). Our infrastructure ingests WARC files, MHTML snapshots, and raw HTML3.2 documents, normalizing them into a queryable API with cryptographic provenance tracking.

📡 Base URL All API requests should be made to: https://api.1990webarchive.org/v2

Authentication

Access requires an API key obtained from your dashboard. Include it in the Authorization header as a Bearer token.

curl Example HTTP

curl "https://api.1990webarchive.org/v2/archive/search?q=geocities" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

⚠️ Security Notice Never expose your API key in client-side code or public repositories. Use environment variables or secret managers.

Core Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/archive/search	Query archived pages by keywords, era, or metadata
GET	/archive/retrieve/{id}	Download specific snapshot in requested format
POST	/archive/submit	Queue a modern or legacy URL for preservation
DELETE	/archive/submission/{id}	Cancel a pending archival job

Search & Filtering

The search endpoint supports advanced querying. Use query parameters to narrow results:

Response Structure JSON

{
  "total_results": 4821,
  "page": 1,
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "arch_9f82a1",
      "url": "http://home.pages.com/~user95/",
      "captured_date": "1997-08-14T00:00:00Z",
      "format": "MHTML",
      "size_bytes": 24500,
      "tags": ["personal", "mid-90s", "geocities-style"]
    }
  ]
}

Supported Data Formats

Archives are stored in their original format and converted on-demand for compatibility:

WARC 1.0/1.1 - Standard web archive format, includes HTTP headers & response bodies
MHTML - MIME HTML, bundles resources (images, MIDI, scripts) into a single file
HTML3.2 - Raw markup with original table/frames structures preserved
JSON-LD - Semantic metadata layer for programmatic consumption

Archive CLI

Install our command-line tool for bulk operations and offline archival workflows:

Installation bash

# macOS / Linux
brew install 1990webarchive/tap/archive-cli

# Quick sync local directory
archive-cli sync --dir ./my-old-site --format warc --token $API_KEY

Rate Limits & Best Practices

To ensure equitable access to historical resources, the following limits apply:

Free Tier: 100 requests/min, 10GB/month downloads
Pro Tier: 1,000 requests/min, 500GB/month downloads
Enterprise: Custom limits, dedicated endpoints, SLA support

Always respect X-RateLimit-Remaining headers. Implement exponential backoff for 429 responses. Use pagination (limit & offset) for large datasets.