How to Research an Archive and Report What the Records Can Prove

What to take away

Start with a claim, not a topic

"The history of the lighthouse" cannot be searched. "The first Minot's Ledge Light was destroyed on 17 April 1851" can be tested. Turn the assignment into claims that could be true, false or disputed: who commissioned a building, when it was built, when it opened, who owned it, what changed later.

For each claim, list the variant names, former agencies, places and date ranges. Then list the kind of record that could carry it. A construction date might sit in contracts and drawings. Ownership sits in deeds and tax files. Daily use sits in logbooks, diaries and oral histories. A public interpretation sits in labels, tour scripts and budgets.

The National Park Service's guide to place-based research names several of these sources: historical maps, building permits, photographs, city directories, census records and National Register of Historic Places nomination forms. It also advises searching local and state archives, newspapers and libraries, and phoning local organisations when the web does not help.

Learn how the repository is arranged

Archives do not file by topic. They keep records together by who created them. The international standard for describing them, the International Council on Archives' ISAD(G), second edition, was adopted in Stockholm in September 1999. It sets out 26 elements of description and a multilevel rule: describe the whole first, then each part, "proceeding from the broadest (fonds) to the more specific". Its levels are fonds, series, file and item, with intermediate levels such as sub-series.

In US federal practice the top level is the record group. The National Archives (NARA) catalog lets you filter by level of description, record group number, collection identifier and creator. Its search tips say a phrase in double quotes matches that word sequence only, and that punctuation is ignored.

Work down, not across:

Save the description page even when nothing is digitised. It tells you the repository, series, dates and creator you need for a request. A catalogue entry is not the item. If the entry says "drawing", you have not yet seen the drawing.

ISAD(G) also has an element called archival history, which records custody changes and how the material came to be arranged. The standard says that if the archival history is unknown, the description should record that. That is useful for a reporter: an honest finding aid can already tell you where the story of the records stops.

A worked case: lighthouse records at the National Archives

The first lighthouse on Minot's Ledge off Cohasset, Massachusetts, is a documented case with named records. The National Park Service says Congress appropriated funds in 1847, the iron tower went into operation on 1 January 1850, and a storm destroyed it on 17 April 1851, killing two assistant keepers. The granite replacement began operating on 15 November 1860.

Those are claims about a place. The records that could support them are federal. NARA's guide to Record Group 26, Records of the U.S. Coast Guard covers the Lighthouse Service (1792 to 1852), the Lighthouse Board (1852 to 1903, and again to 1910) and the Bureau of Lighthouses (1910 to 1939), whose functions passed to the Coast Guard in 1939. The guide lists, among other series:

The last row shows how to read a finding aid. The logbook series described starts in 1872, so it cannot document an 1851 event. That is a limit of the series, not a mystery. Whether the correspondence or minutes mention the wreck is a question for the item-level descriptions and, if needed, the reference staff.

NARA's own citation leaflet uses this subject on its cover. It cites a drawing as: Lighthouse Drawings; "Minot Ledge Light House" [Architectural Drawing]; District 2, Drawing 20-21; Records of the U.S. Coast Guard, Record Group 26; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. For drawings, photographs and other non-text records, the leaflet says the file unit comes first because it is often the only way to locate the item.

Cite so someone else can find it

NARA's General Information Leaflet 17 (revised 2010) lists the elements of a citation to federal records: record item, file unit, series, subgroup, record group and repository. Not every citation has all of them. Two of its reminders matter most:

The UK equivalent is shorter. The National Archives at Kew asks for its name, the full catalogue reference copied exactly as it appears in Discovery, usually at the lowest level available, and a page or folio number where relevant. An example on that page is "TNA: CO 5/690, pp 143-149".

In prose, attribute plainly: "a Lighthouse Board minute from 1851 records". Keep the full citation in your notes. For private repositories, follow their own citation guidance and ask what they want in credit lines.

Request records and keep a log

Plan the request before you travel or write. NARA's start-your-research page sets out four steps: pick a topic, gather background, find records and information about records, then decide whether to visit. Visitors get a research card on arrival and must follow the research room rules.

Send repository staff exact references: record group or collection, series, box, folder, identifier and date range. Ask about restrictions, copying rules, fees and unprocessed additions. Ask for adjacent folders too, because folder labels do not always describe every enclosed item.

Access to federal records is not always a FOIA matter. Where a record is open in an archive, you consult it. Where an agency still holds it, the Freedom of Information Act gives the public the right to request records from any federal agency, subject to nine exemptions. State, local and tribal governments have their own public-records laws, and private repositories set their own terms. Check which applies before you file anything.

For every item, log:

Photograph the folder label before the item where rules allow. Keep a separate list of negative searches. A line in that list might read: "Series name, date range, search term, date searched, result: none found." That line is a finding. "Nothing exists" is not.

Report conflicts and absences

Build a claim table with columns for claim, supporting record, contrary record and status. If a program says one date and a newspaper says another, they may describe different events: a dedication and an opening, for instance. Classify support as direct, indirect, negative, reported or inferred, and say which in the draft.

When material is missing, name the series, years and people you searched. Then say what the finding aid or reference staff told you. Archives hold what was created, kept, transferred, described and made accessible, so a gap alone does not show destruction or concealment.

Match the record to the claim before you publish:

If your story turns on a listed building, see the Historic England listing discussion for the UK system. For an artwork rather than a building, the same chain-of-custody logic is applied in how to verify painting provenance. For museum-held material, museum and exhibition reporting covers what labels and catalogues can and cannot support.

Editorial suggestion: write the limits into the draft itself, in one sentence near the claim, not in a methods note at the bottom.

Sources