The International Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth (ACRE) initiative undertakes and facilitates the recovery and digitisation of global, historical surface terrestrial and marine weather observations. We find these observations in archives, libraries, museums and the like all around the world. Once digitised, these data underpin weather and climate reconstructions (reanalyses) spanning the last 200-250 years. In this presentation, we will give an overview of ACRE, showcasing both a UK and an Argentine ‘end-to-end’ case-study illustrating the process going from data rescue through a reanalysis to weather/climate applications. All of the historical weather data and the resulting climate reanalyses are freely available to researchers with interests in climate science, applications, impacts, risks and extremes. www.met-acre.net