Natalis de Wailly

Natalis de Wailly (Mézières, Ardennes May 10, 1805 – Paris, December 4, 1886) was a French archivist, librarian and historian.

In 1841, as head of the Administrative Section of the Royal Archives, he wrote a ministerial circular, issued by Count Tanneguy Duchâtel, Minister of the Interior, stating that records should be grouped according to the nature of the institution that has accumulated them and formulating the principle of respect des fonds (up until that point, archives had often been sorted according to subject, date or place).

In 1854, he was appointed head of the manuscript department of the Bibliothèque imperial.

More information on the English and French Wikipedia pages.