Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Tuesday's Tip - Use ArchiveGrid to Find Archival Collections

This week's Tuesday's Tip is:  Use the www.ArchiveGrid.org website to find archival collections of papers, manuscripts, photos, etc.

The site description says:

"ArchiveGrid is an important destination for searching through historical documents, personal papers, and family histories held in archives around the world.


"Thousands of libraries, museums, and archives have contributed nearly a million collection descriptions to ArchiveGrid. Researchers searching ArchiveGrid can learn about the many items in each of these collections, contact archives to arrange a visit to examine materials, and order copies."


The site has a list of contributing artchives at http://archivegrid.org/web/jsp/contributorlist.jsp.  Obviously, this isn't ALL possible archival repositories, but there are many on this list.

There is a link on the home page to search the ArchiveGrid system - the search is at http://beta.worldcat.org/archivegrid/.  


I entered "seaver family" (without quotes) in the search field at the top right of the screen above, and was rewarded with 197 matches:


With "seaver family" in quotes there were only 13 matches, all of which were pertinent.

Some examples from the latter list:

*  Seaver Family papers, 1832-1918, 1852-1881 (bulk). Seaver Family. (New York State Historical Documents)

*  Herbert and Dorothy Seaver, Jr. collection, 1833-1902., Seaver, Herbert, Jr, donor. (Western Michigan University)

4 comments:

Celia Lewis said...

Randy - am I right that this site is only open to subscriptions by organizations, libraries, societies, etc.? Searching it was interesting, found a few relevant items... Well worth the effort.

Jana Iverson Last said...

Oh boy! Thanks for this Randy! I just did a search and found a book on my Iverson ancestors I didn't know about. Now I just need to figure out how to get my hands on it. :)

Anonymous said...

Randy,

In my area, we have access to ArchiveGrid from home through my county public library -- it's free!

Barbara
Raleigh, NC

Gena Philibert-Ortega said...

Celia,

The beta version of Archive Grid is open to everyone. Just access it at http://beta.worldcat.org/archivegrid/

It's a wonderful source.
-Gena