Using Archives: a Guide to Effective Research
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Using Archives A Guide to Effective Research by Laura Schmidt CONTENTS Introduction Introduction . 1 Archives exist both to preserve historic materials and to make them available for use . This guide addresses What are Archives and How do They the second purpose by outlining the functions and Differ from Libraries? . 2 procedures of archives, and is designed both for first- time archives users and scholars who have already Types of Archives . 3 conducted research in archives . The content covers: Finding and Evaluating Archives . 4 • How archives function Requesting Materials Remotely . 6 • How to identify appropriate archives for your Planning to Visit an Archives . 7 research Typical Usage Guidelines in Archival Repositories . 8 • How to access historical materials and research at an archives Notes on Copyright, Restrictions, and Repositories and their collecting scopes and practices Unprocessed Collections . 9 may differ, but the principles in this guide should Visiting an Archives . 10. assist you in accomplishing your research goals at any archival institution . A Final Word and Additional Resources . .11 Photos from left to right: Appendix: Sample Finding Aid The Nelson Mandela Papers feature letters he wrote to family and friends with Annotations . .13 while in prison . Photo courtesy of Elizabeth W. Adkins, CA. LBJ howling with his dog Yuki while visiting with the U .S Ambassador to England . Photo courtesy of Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum opened in 2010 . Courtesy of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Steeplechase Pier and the Boardwalk, 1920 . Photo courtesy of Atlantic City Free Public Library. Archives preserve historic materials, including manuscripts and books . 2 What Are Archives and How Do They Differ from Libraries? Libraries in towns (public libraries) Examples of archival materials include: of the same book . Checking out the or universities (academic libraries) can letters written by Abraham Lincoln handwritten diary of a historic figure generally be defined as “collections of books (Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library from an archives would cause the same and/or other print or nonprint materials and Museum, Springfield, Illinois), physical deterioration, but the diary is organized and maintained for use ”. 1 Patrons Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural irreplaceable . of those libraries can access materials at drawings (Avery Architectural and Fine the library, via the Internet, or by checking Arts Library, Columbia University, Note that there is a great deal of them out for home use . Libraries exist New York), photographs documenting overlap between archives and libraries . to make their collections available to the the construction of the Panama Canal An archives may have library as part people they serve . (Transportation History Collection, of its name, or an archives may be a University of Michigan Special department within a library . Archives also exist to make their Collections), and video footage from I collections available to people, but differ Example: The Performing Arts Reading Love Lucy television episodes (the Paley Room in the Library of Congress . from libraries in both the types of materials Center for Media, New York and Los they hold, and the way materials are accessed . Angeles) . Archives can • Types of Materials: • Access to Materials: Since materials hold both published and unpublished in archival collections are unique, the materials, and those materials can people (archivists) in charge of caring Photos top row - left to right: be in any format . Some examples are for those materials strive to preserve New York Cubans players’ contract (dated 1947) for Silvio manuscripts, letters, photographs, them for use today, and for future Garcia . Photo courtesy of the Negro League Baseball Museum. moving image and sound materials, generations of researchers . Archives Detail of a 1916 original pen and ink cartoon drawing, artwork, books, diaries, artifacts, “Remove this blot!” From the Carey Orr Cartoons, Special have specific guidelines for how people Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library. and the digital equivalents of all of may use collections (which will be The Hollinger box is a revolutionary storage container that these things . Materials in an archives discussed later in this guide) to protect can be found in every archives . are often unique, specialized, or rare the materials from physical damage Photos bottom row - left to right: objects, meaning very few of them and theft, keeping them and their Barbara Smith Conrad’s May 14, 1957 letter to the exist in the world, or they are the only University of Texas President Logan Wilson . Photo courtesy content accessible for posterity . of Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. ones of their kind . Example: Checking out a book from a A news clip from The Daily Texan in 1957, which is part of the Barbara Conrad Papers at the Dolph Briscoe Center for 1 Joan M. Reitz, ODLIS – Online Dictionary for Library library causes it to eventually wear out, American History . Photo courtesy of Dolph Briscoe Center for and Information Science (Libraries Unlimited, 2010), American History. http://lu .com/odlis/odlis_l .cfm#library . and then the library buys a new copy 3 Types of Archives There are many varieties of archives, and Franklin D . Roosevelt Presidential denominations within a faith, or the types of materials they collect differ Library and Museum, the New individual places of worship . The as well . Defining your research topic and York State Archives, City of Boston materials stored in these repositories knowing what sorts of materials you are Archives . may be available to the public, or may looking for will help you determine the exist solely to serve members of the appropriate institutions to contact . Here • Historical societies are faith or the institution by which they is a brief overview of repository types: organizations that seek to preserve were created . and promote interest in the history • College and university archives of a region, a historical period, Examples: United Methodist Church are archives that preserve materials nongovernment organizations, or a Archives, American Jewish Archives . relating to a specific academic subject . The collections of historical • Special collections are institutions institution . Such archives may also societies typically focus on a state or containing materials from individuals, contain a “special collections” division a community, and may be in charge families, and organizations deemed (see definition below) . College and of maintaining some governmental to have significant historical value . university archives exist first to serve records as well . Topics collected in special collections their parent institutions and alumni, Examples: The Wisconsin Historical vary widely, and include medicine, law, and then to serve the public . Society, the National Railway literature, fine art, and technology . Examples: Stanford University Archives, Historical Society, the San Fernando Often a special collections repository Mount Holyoke College Archives . Valley Historical Society . will be a department within a library, holding the library’s rarest or most • Corporate archives are archival • Museums and archives share the valuable original manuscripts, books, departments within a company or goal of preserving items of historical and/or collections of local history for corporation that manage and preserve significance, but museums tend to neighboring communities . the records of that business . These have a greater emphasis on exhibiting repositories exist to serve the needs those items, and maintaining diverse Examples: Special Collections Research of company staff members and to collections of artifacts or artwork Center at the University of Chicago, advance business goals . Corporate rather than books and papers . Any of American Philosophical Society archives allow varying degrees of the types of repositories mentioned in Library . public access to their materials this list may incorporate a museum, depending on the company’s policies or museums may be stand-alone and archival staff availability . institutions . Likewise, stand-alone Photos from left to right: museums may contain libraries and/or Examples: Ford Motor Company A student dressed as Ptah (the chief god of the archives . Egyptian city of Memphis) at a “Wind Up” party, Archives, Kraft Foods Archives . circa 1930 . Courtesy of University of Texas School of Examples: The Metropolitan Museum Architecture Collection, Alexander Architectural Archive, University of Texas at Austin. • Government archives are of Art, Smithsonian National Air and Materials housed in religious archives sometimes exist repositories that collect materials Space Museum . relating to local, state, or national only to serve members of the faith . An advertisement for Ford Motor Company that government entities . • Religious archives are archives appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, 1925 . Photo relating to the traditions or courtesy of Ford Motor Company. Examples: The National Archives and institutions of a major faith, Records Administration (NARA), the 4 Finding and Evaluating Archives How do you locate archives that might contains linked archival repository • Search the National Union Catalog 4 have materials appropriate for your databases for each province . of Manuscript Collections research? In addition to using online (NUCMC) at http://www .loc .gov/coll/ Check at