I research all types of media at the National Archives, both in the “A2” College Park, Maryland facility and in their main “A1” building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC.
The National Archives contains historical records in various media. Obtaining these records is an art because each governmental agency has its own culture and often more than one record management system. Once I have located the responsive records, I copy them with the fastest and most accurate equipment available.
How I work:
Before starting work, unless I know where a given record is to be found beforehand, I consult the NARA website and do a search. Next, I often talk with a Reference Archivist, who is essentially an expert employed by the National Archives on certain record groups. We then frequently consult a Finding Aid (a book detailing locations of references and shortcuts) that usually helps to narrow down the search. If lucky, the responsive record can be identified in a particular folder and ordered. On other occasions, potentially responsive records are clustered throughout dozens of boxes containing several cubic feet of records.
It may take as little as thirty minutes after an order for textual records to be “pulled” or it may take up to two hours. Other media, such as microfilms and video recordings, can be found on a shelf. My output – the product I produce – depends on the media the client is interested in. Please click on the type of media that you would like researched:
Textual Records (documents) – Cables, memos, letters, and other written records. All of these are royalty-free public records.
Still photographs – Prints, negatives, and transparencies. NARA archives are both royalty-free collections and copyrighted ones. For the latter, you may have to seek permission from the royalty holder.
Audio recordings – Thousands of royalty-free historical recordings.
Motion picture films – Movies and documentaries in various formats, with and without sound. Many of these are royalty-free. Those that are not royalty-free will require the royalty-holder’s permission to use.
Microfilms—The National Archives has extensive microfilm collections of records that are sometimes unavailable for perusal (such as the German records collection). These are entirely royalty-free public documents.
I can obtain material very rapidly. The evening after I do the research, I can often have it in final form ready for download by a client.
No job is too big or too small.
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