Inorganic material systems for archival holographic recording are considered. The emphasis is on bleached silver halide emulsions and CdS and Se colloidal solutions. The bleached silver halide emulsions were investigated to determine the salient parameters that influence photolytic stability and diffraction efficiency. The experimental and theoretical investigations reveal that the silver halide grains, the gelatin matrix, and the gelatin matrix voids are contributing to the holographic storage mechanism. By the adsorption of bromine from the processing solutions on the silver halide grains, it is possible to extend the photolytic stability almost indefinitely. By suppressing the influence of the gelatin matrix and the gelatin matrix voids by chemical processing, it is possible to obtain increased diffraction efficiencies reaching 70%. The colloidal solutions were investigated to determine the basic mechanisms for photodepositing ultrathin surface relief holographic gratings. The results reveal that the photodeposition includes primary photoreduction and secondary adsorption controlled processes. A model is developed to predict the spatial frequency response of the colloidal solutions showing that the recorded spatial resolution is limited by the particle sizes.