Archival research can be intimidating when you first start because it seems so different from “regular” research. And it does indeed have some particular challenges. To help you as you begin your research, I’ve put together some pointers for doing archival research.

Before you go into the archives:

• Review all the finding aids or fonds descriptions for the collections you’ll be choosing from. Which ones do you find most interesting? Begin with those papers, but make sure to look at more than one collection, because you can’t know what exciting stuff might be there.
• Think about what questions you have, based on your own interests, the scholarly readings we’ve done, or the goals of the Archives Project. Use these to guide your initial readings, but be open to discovering something new and taking that direction instead or in addition.

When you get to the archives

• If we aren’t meeting as a class, sign out 1 box from the materials assigned. If we are meeting as a group and have the materials already out for us, choose 1 box from the materials assigned.
• Open a Word doc or start notes on the purple pads RBSC provides. Use the finding aid or archival description (typically at the front of the box) to scan through the different materials available: based on what you hope to find or think about, what jumps out at you as most interesting? What else occurs to you as you scan this list that you’d like to check out? Write yourself a list of files to check out.
• Choose one. Immediately, write down the Collection / Fond, the Box number, and the file number you’ve chosen to work with. (You could also take a photo, but it’s a good practice to keep the notes and file info together in one document.)
• Start reading, carefully flipping through the pages (remembering to keep materials in the order you’ve found them).
• Draw on your skills in qualitative literary analysis: read these as texts. What makes them meaningful, and how, and to whom? Think about audience (original and archival), rhetorical structures, genres, functions, even literary devices. What patterns emerge, in the one collection and also across collections (e.g., how artists represent their work to their agents in correspondence)? What seems anomalous, why, and how? What intrigues you and you need more information about?
• Feel free to take photos of documents so that you can consult them later; just be sure your flash is off and the archive tag is included in the image.
• Don’t hesitate to call on the archival staff for help about archival questions. For historical or contextual information about the people, times, events etc related to your chosen archival material, use Google!
• General advice: Pace yourself, giving yourself time to look through multiple folders or collections if it’s your first time working with the materials. Explore. Be open to discovery. The goal is to find 5-6 documents that you’d like to talk about because they illustrate an idea, issue, or research problem you think needs addressing.