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History: Archives, Manuscripts & Microforms

Archives, Manuscript Collections & Microforms

Less than 1% of the world's preserved historic documents, manuscript collections, and papers have been digitized, so serious researchers are encouraged to make arrangements to visit libraries and archives preserving the papers of historic figures and organizations in person.

ArchivGrid is a powerful tool to locate relevant archives and manuscript collections around the world, while Explore Chicago Collections searches local archives. For either search, type in the names of individuals, organizations, issues, or campaigns related to your historical research to find relevant archival collections and where they are located. Many collections will have finding aids posted online, where you can see how the papers are organized into separate boxes and folders for records of different activities (meetings, correspondence, promotional materials, press, etc.).

Contact curators at the institutions where these special collections are housed about how much material they may have relevant to your topic to see if planning a visit makes sense.  Materials in a special collection are not always available for immediate use. If you decide to use materials in a special collection, arrange ahead of your visit for the materials to be ready when you arrive.  

Microforms @ UIC Library

Prior to the advent of digital imaging, some historical materials and many historic runs of newspapers and other fragile publications were photographed and shrunk down into reels of microfilm which most libraries, like ours, have special readers for, allowing you to scroll through daily newspapers from other countries, languages, or centuries page-by-page. As you go, you can save images of specific pages or articles to the computer for use in your research. While it is time-consuming and does not allow you to search the entire corpus of the paper for specific words the way digitized materials do, for many local newspapers or other publications which no longer exist, it is often the only option.

Contact the history librarian, Jeff Wheeler (jwheel9@uic.edu) for assistance in using microfilm reels.  Search them using the link below

ArchiveGrid

Chicago Area Archival Collections

Other Archival Guides