The Bochnia Branch of The State Archive in Cracow was created in 1950 as a branch of the Provincial State Archive in Cracow. Since 1952 it had functioned as the County State Archive in Bochnia (1952-1975), until 1957 subordinate to the Provincial Archive in Cracow and then to the State Archive of the City and Province of Cracow. After the state administration reform in 1975, the Provincial State Archive in Cracow-Bochnia Branch came into being (1976-1983). After the implementation of the14 July 1983 act on the national archival collection, the outpost in Bochnia became an out-of-town branch of the State Archive in Cracow.

The first archival collection taken over by the Archive was the old Polish archive of the city of Bochnia containing files created between 1486-1787. During the 50 years of its continuous activity in the town, the Bochnia Archive marked its presence by participating in the celebrations of successive anniversaries of the founding of Bochnia, in historical exhibitions organised in the county of Bochnia and in academic symposia. Many monographs of the towns and villages of the region were created on the basis of the historical materials kept in the Archive (e.g. "Bochnia: The Town and Region History", "Uście Solne", "Szczurowa", "I come from Niedzwiady", "A History of the Village and Parish of Gnojnik 1160-1939", "Lipnica Murowana - An Outline History"). In 1993 the Archive started co-operation with Museo Storico Italiano della Revereto, the result of which was, among others, the "World War II in Galicia" exhibition ("Sui campi di Galizia") open in Italy in 1995.