Turning a general topic into an archival research questionFor example, “the history of a neighbourhood” seems straightforward until you consult an archive’s online catalogue. A keyword search returns maps, council minutes, photographs, building records, newspapers,…
A finding aid is not the collection. It explains who created the records, why they were created, how they are organized, the date span, and how to request individual series, boxes, or folders. Reading it…
You find a digitized letter in an archive catalogue. You download the image and save it with the writer’s name. Several weeks pass, and you no longer remember which collection it came from, why it…
Archival catalogs don’t usually list all names correctly. People have been recorded under a married name, initials, transliterated, or spelled by someone who thought they heard something else. Towns have changed their names, swapped administrative…
