Dr Megan Wang (née Kelleher)

As a historical researcher, you’ll get your sources from a variety of places – books, journal articles, website and even podcasts! But the one thing that any historian cannot live without when doing research is archives. Archives hold a wealth of information that enable us to interpret and reinterpret the past centuries later, and are the backbone of any sort of historical analysis. However, I appreciate that these can sometimes be daunting places for first-time visitors, so in this blog I wanted to give you my tips for preparing for your archive visit.

Practicalities

The first thing that you need to know about archives is that, although there are the general overarching rules (e.g. pencil only, no food and drink), some archives may have particular rules that are unique to them. This include their prices for taking photographs of the collection, a limit on how many items you can view in the day and other practicalities. In order to make the most of your visit, check these restrictions with the archivist before you go, and on the day get there with plenty of time. Trips to the archives go a lot more smoothly if you arrive prepared!

Do Research

Now, it may seem a bit strange to say research prior to visiting the archives,  when I’ve just said they’re the backbone of any work you are doing, but what I mean is research the collection itself before you visit. Having clear goals of exactly which items you would like to see, or would like to prioritise, can make your visit a lot more productive and enable you to view the items most prevalent to your research. Moreover, by checking the collection before you arrive you can see whether items have already been digitised; this will save you a lot of time, rather than spending hours viewing a document that you could’ve seen in the comfort of your own home!

If you’re a little unsure what you’d like to see, include in your email to the archives team the topics, themes or people you’d like to include in your research. These teams know their collections inside-out, and want to help their researchers to conduct their research, so make the most of their knowledge. If you’re even struggling to know which archive to visit in the UK, use The UK National Archives’ Discovery system to search for archives that contain records relating to some of your key words.

Take Photos if You Can

When you are in the archives, you have a very finite amount of time to look at all of your documents and get your notes. As exciting as it is to view a document that is fundamental to your research, please do not try to read every detail or spend ages analysing the images you are looking at – your time is precious, so use it wisely! I always get a photography licence where possible and photograph all of the items in a file; I then upload these to my computer to look at when I have more time, so I can get the quotes and other information I need when I have more time.

Keep Records!

It goes without saying that keeping a record of all of your research is vital; I cannot begin to describe how many students I’ve had who cannot find the source of that quote that will be perfect for their research, which is incredibly frustrating all around. Make a note of the cataloguing number (some archives may have two, as many updated their codes in the last couple of decades), archive and dates pertaining to that record where possible.

Also, be ruthless; if you’re reading a document and can quickly see it is not related to the research you are doing right now, put it on the back burner for now. That’s not to say never read it, merely come back to it when it becomes useful or if you have time. I have a folder called “not useful but may be” for these items, so I don’t lose them but know where I can find them should I need to!

These are,  of course, not a finite list of ways to utilise the archives, but I hope it takes the pressure off of you when doing your own research and you can find what works for you. If you are a seasoned archives user, please do let me know what your tips are as I love to learn new ways to utilise them!