Help! I've been mistaken for a real historian instead of a hobbyist.
Okay, not really - but I am heading to a museum's archives to look for primary source documents. I cold-called the museum, spoke to the front desk and they referred me to a curator. She was incredibly helpful and we discussed the materials I was hoping to find. After narrowing down the specific collection I was hoping to view, we've scheduled a time for me to come in after the holidays.
It's been years since I had to do a research paper for school, but I've recently started a passion project researching some local history. While I'm blessed to have a fabulous local library system and I'm familiar with ILL and e-catalogs for other resources, I have never used this kind of resource before.
How can I make the best use of my visit to the museum? What are some do's and don'ts of visiting archives? Are eight different colored highlighters too many or not enough?
How do I determine whether a primary source is useful or merely interesting?
The correct number of colored highlighters to bring to the archives is ZERO!
You'll probably be restricted to pencils for handwriting. Bringing a laptop or tablet to take notes with is usually acceptable. Photography is often restricted. It's best to find out all the rules and procedures for documentation and note-taking prior to arriving, so you don't lug a lot of equipment that you end up being unable to use or end up unwittingly violating their rules. Archivists will generally bend over backwards to help out so long as you follow the rules.
Is the collection you'll be consulting very large? Some are hundreds of linear feet of papers, so you'll have to compose a list of exactly which boxes you want to view and possibly submit it in advance. Obviously, you can go through the entire collection if time allows, but you may only be able to view a certain number of boxes per day, especially if the records are stored off-site or there is high demand for appointments.
Have you seen the finding aid yet? This will give you some idea of which specific records are in which boxes, so you know which ones to request first. Let's say you're interested in a famous local writer, and the collection related to them is 10 boxes of papers. Boxes 1 to 3 hold materials relating to their early life and education, while boxes 4 to 6 hold correspondence. Box 4 relates to personal matters, while boxes 5 and 6 hold letters to editors, publishers and fellow writers. Boxes 7 to 10 hold manuscripts. The aspect of the individual's history this is most of interest to you will determine where you should start looking. Don't feel as though you need to start with Box 1 if it's not of immediate interest you.
Archival documents are like the pieces of a puzzle. You really won't know how important one is until you understand how it fits into the larger picture after you've combed through everything. It definitely helps to have a good understanding of an individual's biography before going through their papers. Informal correspondence, for example, will often only use first names (or even more frustrating--nicknames), so knowing general biographical information will help you identify the figures involved and assemble the pieces of the puzzle more easily.