22 | The Writer • April 2020
the Declaration of Independence,
Constitution, and Bill of Rights – but
it offers so much more. The National
Archives holds the valuable records of
the U.S. government’s three branches
as far back as 1774 and the first Con-
tinental Congress.
The National Archives comprises
more than 40 sites across the United
States, including field facilities and the
presidential library system. Records are
usually 25 years old when they arrive at
the Archives, having spent time at their
original home agencies first.
While the Library of Congress has
“collections” that organize content by
subject matter, the National Archives has
“record groups.” For example, the State
Department has a record group number
and, under that, a series of records.
Missy McNatt, education specialist
for the National Archives, estimates that
it holds approximately 15 billion pages
of records. Of those pages, there are
millions online already, with a plan to
digitize 500 million more pages by 2024.
That year is also the deadline for all fed-
eral agencies that send records to for-
ward everything in digital format only.
Whether researching onsite or
online, the best place to start is the
Archives’ online catalog or the finding
aids, which are tools that help users
locate information within a particular
record group, such as an inventory or
index. “Archivists create finding aids to
share their knowledge,” explains
McNatt. “The key to successful research
is finding the archivist who knows
about your topic. Archivists have deep
knowledge about records series.”
Before conducting any onsite
research, you must figure out which
field office holds the records of inter-
est, and it may not always be the office
you think. For example, records for a
federal agency in Virginia would be
housed in the Philadelphia field
office. “If researching Native Ameri-
can tribes, records will more than
likely be found in field offices in Fort
Worth or the Denver area because the
Bureau of Indian Affairs was more
prominent in those states,” says
McNatt. “But there’s no hard and fast
rule for any of this, so you always
need to check to make sure.”
Regardless of the research topic,
McNatt emphasizes that the more
focus you can bring in with you, the
more success you’ll have in the
research process. Similar to what you
can do at the Library of Congress, you
can call and email archivists at the
National Archives. “The archivists are
there to help and are very customer-
friendly,” says McNatt. “But they can’t
help you if you don’t know what you’re
looking for.”
Rachel K. Reilly, senior research
associate for Taylor Research Group
(TRG), agrees. Reilly has a Master of
Library and Information Science, spe-
cializing in archives, records manage-
ment, and preservation. Even so, she
recommends reaching out to staff.
“Use those librarians and archivists.They’re experts in what their reposito-
ries hold,” she says. “Also contact them
if you’re not finding what you need.
Pick their brains. That’s what they’re
there for.”
Reilly conducts historical research
and writes reports on her findings for
TRG’s clients. She’s also the primary
content creator for TRG’s blog and
newsletter. Whatever the project, she
starts with the National Archives and
Library of Congress. “I always begin
with a bird’s eye view of the universe of
records,” she says. “I can get a quick
sense of which agencies will have
them, and then I know who to reach
out to.”Smithsonian Institution
Another regular source for Reilly is the
Smithsonian Institution, which is
much more than the collection muse-
ums on the Washington, D.C.,
National Mall. The Smithsonian bills
itself as “the world’s largest museum,National ArchivesJennifer L. Blanck