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archival research
``` Notes on Archival Research
by Lora Taub Department of Communication UC San Diego La Jolla, California 92093-0503 USA
ltaub@weber.ucsd.edu
I spent most of Spring quarter in London, doing research for my dissertation on the political economy of public theater in early modern London. With my headquarters at the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London, my work took me to several different research sites around London and in Oxford, in settings as diverse as a boys' school and the basement of a sixteenth century church. I hope that some of the experiences I share below will assist other graduate students who are either thinking about a project that requires archival research or are currently planning a trip to the archives.
The British Library publishes an entire pamphlet designed to help you fill out your book application slip properly. I studied it thoroughly before submitting my first application form early on a Monday morning. If a book is "outhoused" at a satellite storage location (nearly half of the library's collection is outhoused), it may take up to 48 hours to arrive. So I returned to the collection counter the following day, handed the clerk my copy of the form and waited eagerly as he disappeared behind the shelves. Emerging a few minutes later, with only a small slip of paper in his hands, the clerk handed over my original request slip. There was a large red "X" stamped in the box marked "Please see reason for non- delivery." I flipped the slip over to find another red "X" in the box marked "For further information please apply to Book Delivery Enquiries."
I found the Book Delivery Enquiries window (not to be confused with the Enquiry Desk as I soon learned) in the main Reading Room. The clerk at this window examined my application form and stated, "I regret that this book is stored in a facility contaminated with asbestos and has been inaccessible since February." "But this is April," I replied. "The good news is that the book you seek wasn't destroyed by bombing during the war." She had a point.
Of course none of the preparatory work I did before my research trip readied me for this first (and worst) encounter at the British Library. My first lesson was that in even the most carefully planned research there is always an element of uncertainty. Framed from a more positive perspective, in my advisor's words, "much of it comes down to serendipity." So, aside from those unexpected discoveries you'll make by accident, how best to plan your archival research? What can you do to research your research trip before you leave? And what can you do once you're there to make your visit as productive as possible? To a certain degree the answers depend upon where "there" is. It makes a difference, that is, whether you are doing research at the British Library, the Smithsonian, a local history library in upstate New York, or the archives of AT&T. These suggestions are therefore general, advice I received from UCSD faculty and students, and archivists and scholars I met during my stay in London.
Printed guides to archives and manuscript collections, found on the reference shelves at Central Library, are crucial for identifying potential source materials. In some cases, however, I found that they provided only partial information or were significantly out of date. Nothing proved more beneficial than writing to the archivists at the sites I planned to visit beforehand. Not only was it necessary in some cases to make an appointment for a research visit, writing in advance enabled the archivist to inform me of the availability of the documents I wanted to view, to suggest I consult additional relevant source materials as well as other archival repositories I had not already considered. I was thankful to learn from the head librarian, before making the 30 minute train ride to Dulwich, that unless I didn't mind sharing the library reading room with some forty eleven-year old boys, it was best to visit on a Monday or Wednesday when "the air would be calmer."
It's also useful to learn beforehand about photocopying services and restrictions at the library you intend to visit. Depending on the age, format, content, and quality of the sources you are working with, copying may be limited. I budgeted $300 for photocopying. This was before I realized that the sixteenth century manuscripts I was consulting, because of their fragility, can only be photographed, for about 10 pounds (roughly $15) per photo. Microfilm copies may be less expensive, especially if you can wait to print the documents when you return home. Ask the archivist what kind of restrictions apply to the specific documents you need so that you can plan your time (and budget) accordingly.
When you arrive at the library, it's a good practice to meet with the archivist; many archives require an entry interview. I was asked on a few occasions to provide a written description of my project and the primary and secondary sources I'd relied upon so far. Carrying with you a 1-page typed research prospectus will save time for both you and the archivist, and allow you the opportunity to provide more specific information about the parameters of your project. The purpose of this consultation is to help the archivist help you locate relevant materials and get the most out of the library's holdings during your stay. Therefore, detailed presentation of your project --names of participants, places, organizations, dates --is essential to enable the archivist to introduce the full range of potentially useful documentation. This will also help staff direct you to the archivist in your subject area, if there is one.
The Greater London Record Office was so well-staffed they seemed to have a specialist for each century. There I had a two-hour consultation with the sixteenth century specialist, Harriet Hughes, who directed me to everything bearing any remote relationship to theaters, theatrical laborers and entrepreneurs. By the end of the two hours the table in front of us was piled high with finding aids, indexes to wills for my time period, registers to special collections, maps, and a number of secondary sources I hadn't yet reviewed. Ms. Hughes suggested I check in with her occasionally in case additional materials came to mind; inevitably they did--in stacks. She later provided assistance when my embryonic knowledge of sixteenth century paleography failed me and I will always associate with this keen archivist the excitement of locating the signature of a sixteenth-century theatrical entrepreneur in the pages of a vestry minutebook. Maintaining contact with the archivist is more than a formality; it should be part of your ongoing research.
Learn what finding aids are available. Most libraries I visited in London did not have on-line catalogues to their holdings. While the BL is slowly extending its on-line catalogue to include some pictorial documents, maps and ephemera, I found it unreliable for anything other than general searches. There are no electronic resources in the public record offices, local history libraries and smaller private collections where most of my research took me--and I suppose this is more broadly the case than this Melvyl- dependent student cares to admit. At some research sites, printed guides are not always available; in these instances, assistance from the archivist is vital.
In all cases, I benefited most from the bibliographic suggestions of others more familiar with the records and their whereabouts than I. One historian, recounting his own awkward first undertaking at the Public Record Office when he was doing his dissertation research (the archivist peered over his shoulder to inquire whether he knew he was reading a Latin manuscript upside-down), graciously spent a morning introducing me to the PRO and walked me through the process of locating a particularly hard to find set of court papers. This guidance from archivists, scholars and students, both in London and at UCSD, reminds me that working in the archives, far removed from images of the lone historian, is always a social practice. Not unlike the production of drama in early modern London, archival research is built upon, and derives its pleasures and rewards from, the contributions of many.
A word about funding
I save for last the topic which will realistically concern most students first: funding. Research trips, especially if they require extensive travel and an extended stay, are costly. But there are many places to turn for predissertation and dissertation research funding. I received generous assistance from the Communication Department's Michael Schudson Award. Outside of the department there are several sources of support for archival research. Within California, the Huntington Library, the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, the Getty Center and the Bancroft Library are some of the major libraries with fellowship programs to enable graduate students to work with materials in their collections. Ask the archivist at the library you intend to visit whether there are any funds available to assist visiting researchers. Every graduate student I met at the Institute of Historical Research in London was there with assistance from one funding source or another, many awarded by the library or historical society where they were doing their research. For funding information I found particularly useful the American Historical Association's yearly guide, Grants, Fellowships, and Prizes of Interest to Historians, which includes a substantive bibliography of other funding sources. Many fellowships have October or November deadlines, so don't delay. A professor with an admirable record obtaining grants told me that even the most successful and persistent applicants are successful maybe half of the time. Rejection letters are never easy--I was devastated my first. I'm still disappointed when I have a proposal rejected, but I've grown more realistic and I take it less personally. Learn what you can about why your proposal was rejected and ask for specifics about how to make your next application stronger. ```
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