National Archives (NARA)
| I research all types of media at the National Archives in both their
NARA II, College Park, Maryland facility and in their main
building in Washington, DC. The National Archives contains historical records in the form of various media. Obtaining these records is an art, because each governmental agency has its own culture and often more than one record management system. Before I start work, unless I know beforehand exactly where a given record is to be found, I consult the NARA website and do a search. Next I usually talk with a Reference Archivist, who is essentially an expert employed by the National Archives on certain record groups. We then often consult a Finding Aid that usually helps to narrow down the search. If one is lucky the responsive record can be identified in a particular folder and then ordered. On other occasions, potentially responsive records are clustered throughout dozens of boxes containing several cubit feet of records. It may take as little as thirty minutes after an order for some textual records to be "pulled" or it may take up to two hours. Some collections, such as microfilms and video recordings can be simply located via the NARA website and 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 both royalty-free collections as well as copyrighted ones. Audio recordings - Thousands of royalty-free historical recordings. Motion picture films - Old movies and documentaries in various formats, with and without sound. Many of these are royalty-free. Microfilms - The National Archives has an extensive microfilm collection of documents that are usually unavailable for perusal as hard copies. These are entirely royalty free public documents. I can obtain material very rapidly: in most cases I can have it in final form ready for download by a client the evening after I do the research. |