Humanities and Social Sciences Library > Collections & Reading Rooms > Manuscripts and Archives Division

Finding Materials in the Manuscripts and Archives Division

Finding materials in the Manuscripts and Archives Division is a multi-step process. While our website provides some access to our collections, using all of the discovery tools described below will help ensure that you do not overlook an important source for your research.

Of course, since many of our access tools are available only to users on-site, researchers are encouraged to contact us whenever they have questions concerning our collections.

Website

The Collection Descriptions and Guides page on this site provides access to nearly 1300 collection-level catalog records and over 250 finding aids. These two types of descriptions can be searched simultaneously. This page also offers the options of searching only the collection names or browsing an alphabetical list of collections.

While powerful, these searches yield results that are by no means complete for several reasons: many of our collections are described only in the paper guides described below; finding aids do not always lend themselves to fruitful keyword searching; and, while Manuscripts and Archives holds more than half of all the archival material in the Research Libraries, there are substantial archival resources in other divisions.

Catalogs

Search CATNYP to find collection-level descriptions of most of the large manuscript collections in the Manuscripts and Archives Division. Note that CATNYP searches can be limited by "material type" to retrieve only archival materials.

CATNYP should be used in conjunction with the Division’s card catalog. The card catalog of the Manuscripts and Archives Division is the most comprehensive guide to materials acquired through 1985. It is alphabetically arranged and contains entries for names, subjects, geographic locations and types of documents (diaries, account books, logbooks, maps, literary typescripts, etc.). Descriptions of collections acquired after 1985 can be found in CATNYP.

The two-volume Dictionary Catalog of the Manuscript Division, (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1967) reproduces the card catalog of manuscript collections as it appeared in 1966. Although it is no longer comprehensive, this important guide to our collections is available in research libraries throughout the world.

Finding Aids

Inventories

Once a reader discovers particular collections of interest, s/he should consult the inventory of that collection if one exists. The inventory contains a more detailed description of the collection and includes a container list that provides a box by box breakdown of the collection's contents. Occasionally, the inventory will include a list of correspondents represented in the collection or an index to the contents. There are inventories for most major collections available in the reading room. A growing selection of collection inventories may be consulted on the Division’s web site.

Published Guides

In some cases, a published guide can be consulted in lieu of an inventory. Published guides to our manuscript collections include the Calendar of the Emmet Collection of Manuscripts etc. Relating to American History (New York: The New York Public Library, 1959); Colonial Latin American Manuscripts in the Rich Collection by Edwin Blake Brownrigg (New York: The New York Public Library, 1978), Guide to the Budke Collection by John H. Bennett (Nyack: Benlind, 1975), Report on American Manuscripts in the Royal Institution of Great Britain (London: Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, 1904-1909), Catalogue of Cuneiform Tablets of the Wilberforce Eames Babylonian Collection by A. Leo Oppenheim (New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1948), and Islamic Manuscripts in the New York Public Library by Barbara Schmitz (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).

Surveys

Researchers wishing to locate letters and other documents of a specific person should also consult the survey files. These surveys are arranged alphabetically and list all of the materials (which we happen to have located) by a specific individual throughout our collections. The surveys are not comprehensive –they are meant to serve as a time-saving device so that the same collections need not be searched numerous times for the same material. Researchers are encouraged to search other collections that may prove fruitful for their research as the survey files have not been rigorously updated in recent years.

Miscellaneous Files

Uncataloged materials arranged by subject, geographic location, and personal name can be found in the Miscellaneous Files. The contents of these files can range from a single clipping in a personal name file to several boxes of documents relating to the history of New York. Readers may consult three loose-leaf notebooks containing a list of personal names files. There are also files for each of the fifty states and several nations.