This paper introduces a new image-based handwrittenhistorical digit dataset named ARDIS (Arkiv DigitalSweden). The images in ARDIS dataset are extractedfrom 15,000 Swedish church records which were writtenby different priests with various handwriting styles in thenineteenth and twentieth centuries. The constructed datasetconsists of three single digit datasets and one digit stringsdataset. The digit strings dataset includes 10,000 samplesin Red-Green-Blue (RGB) color space, whereas, the otherdatasets contain 7,600 single digit images in different colorspaces. An extensive analysis of machine learning methodson several digit datasets is examined. Additionally, correlationbetween ARDIS and existing digit datasets ModifiedNational Institute of Standards and Technology (MNIST)and United States Postal Service (USPS) is investigated. Experimental results show that machine learning algorithms,including deep learning methods, provide low recognitionaccuracy as they face difficulties when trained on existingdatasets and tested on ARDIS dataset. Accordingly, ConvolutionalNeural Network (CNN) trained on MNIST andUSPS and tested on ARDIS provide the highest accuracies 58.80% and 35.44%, respectively. Consequently, the resultsreveal that machine learning methods trained on existingdatasets can have difficulties to recognize digits effectivelyon our dataset which proves that ARDIS dataset hasunique characteristics. This dataset is publicly available forthe research community to further advance handwritten digitrecognition algorithms.