Finding Aids Award

Submission Guidelines

The Committee accepts submissions or nominations for finding aids for the Finding Aids Award. The Committee reviews submissions once a year and makes the awards. Decisions are by majority vote. If the Committee receives no more than three nominees in any given year, the Committee has the discretion to cancel the second and/or third place awards for that year and award only first place and/or second place. If the Committee finds that none of the nominations for that year are worthy of an award, it has the right not to make any awards for that year.

If necessary, the Committee may request a budget for expenses from the Treasurer of the Steering Committee. This should be submitted by June 1 of each year.

Nominations must be made by a MARAC member and the finding aid must be issued by an institution in the MARAC region.

At the Spring 1998 meeting in Saratoga Springs, New York, the Steering Committee approved the Finding Aids Award Committee's recommendation to name the first place prize the Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award to honor the memory of Fred Miller, archivist and author, who died in 1998.

Eligibility

The Finding Aids Award is given yearly to recognize outstanding achievement in the preparation of finding aids by institutions within the MARAC region. Nominated finding aids must be first made available to the public during the year in which they are nominated. Reprocessed collections with significant revisions related to reparative description or complete reprocessing of legacy collections are also eligible.

Evaluation

Successful finding aids will have outstanding content, take full advantage of the design capabilities inherent in their medium of publication, and incorporate successful innovations that enable researchers to more effectively access and use archival materials. Visit Characteristics of Successful Finding Aids to learn more about evaluation criteria.

Awards

Up to three awards may be given, totaling $500. Awards are to be announced annually at the Spring Conference.

Submission of entries

The Finding Aids Award Committee invites nominations for the MARAC Finding Aids Award by December 31, 2024.

Submissions should be sent via e-mail to both co-chairs of the Finding Aids Award Committee. Each submission should include the URL and a one-to-two page nomination letter (not to exceed 500 words) that addresses the finding aid's exceptional qualities and/or discusses elements not readily apparent from examination of the finding aid itself. For submissions of finding aids for completely reprocessed collections, the nomination letter should also include description about reprocessing rationale and a description of changes made if a previous iteration of the finding aid cannot be linked to or attached.

Submissions should be sent to the Finding Aids Award Committee Co-Chairs:
David R. Grinnell, Senior Co-Chair (2024-2025) – [email protected] AND
Amy Poe, Junior Co-Chair (2024-2025) – [email protected]

For further information on the award see the Finding Aids Award Committee.

Award Winners

The MARAC Finding Aid Awards were first given in 1984 for the best finding aids of 1983. Arthur Breton of the Archives of American Art was chair of the first Finding Aid Awards Committee and has been credited as the creator of the awards. Until the 1993 awards, awards were given for the best finding aid in various categories. Beginning in 1993, first, second, and third place awards were given, irrespective of category. Awards initially were in the form of certificates only, but monetary awards are now also given).

2023 | 2022| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995 | 1994 | 1993 | 1992 | 1991 | 1990 | 1989 | 1988 | 1987 | 1986 | 1985 | 1984 | 1983

2023
Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award: Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University Libraries for the Francis Paudras collection on Bud Powell 

2nd Place: Em Longan for the Benjamin McLaurin papers at The New York Public Library

3rd Place: Dustin Frohlich for the Shipley-Bringhurst-Hargraves family papers at Special Collections and Museums of the University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press

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2022

Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award: James Madison University for ESPN College GameDay Posters

2nd Place: Georgetown University for the Archives of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus

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2021
Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award: Anna Rimel for the Joseph Cornell Study Center Collection housed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum 

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2020 - No award given

2019
Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award: University of Delaware for the Jerome O. Herlihy Political Campaign Ephemera Collection

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2018 - No award given

2017
Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award: Elizabeth Jones-Minsinger at the University of Delaware for the University of Delaware's Philadelphia Custom House records 

2nd Place: New finding aid site for the Nimitz Library at the US Naval Academy, accepted by David D' Onofrio

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2016

Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award: Julie Ludwig, Susan Chore, Katharine Martinez, and Shannon Morelli from the Frick Collection’s Archives Department, for the Finding Aid for the Art Collecting Files of Henry Clay Frick

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2015

Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award: Kathy Jordan and her team at the Library of Virginia, for the Kaine Email Project

2nd Place: Laurie Rizzo and her team at the Hagley Museum and Library, for the Chamber of Commerce of the United States Photographs and Audiovisual Materials finding aid

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2014

Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award: Rona Razon, Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, The Byzantine Institute and Dumbarton Oaks Fieldwork Records and Papers, ca. late 1920s - 2000s.

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2013

Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award: Princeton University Archival Description Working Group (Maureen Callahan, John Delaney, Shaun Ellis, Regine Heberlein, Dan Santamaria, Jon Stroop, and Don Thornbury) of Princeton University Library for the Princeton University Library Finding Aids Interface.

2nd Place: Tanya Elder of the American Jewish Historical Society for their Guide to the Papers of Mordecai Sheftall.

3rd Place: Jonathan Lill and Alana Miller of The Museum of Modern Art, Museum Archives for the MoMA PS1 Archives.

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2012

Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award: The Princeton University Archival Description Working Group (Maureen Callahan, John Delaney, Shaun Ellis, Regine Heberlein, Dan Santamaria, Jon Stroop, and Don Thornbury) of Princeton University Library, for their Princeton University Library Finding Aids Interface.

2nd Place: Tanya Elder of the American Jewish Historical Society, for the Guide to the Papers of Mordecai Sheftall.

3rd Place: Jonathan Lill and Alana Miller of The Museum of Modern Art, Museum Archives, for the MoMA PS1 Archives.

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2011

Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award: The Delaware Public Archives, for their Collection Gateway.

2nd Place: Celia Hartmann of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, for the Finding Aid for the Edward Steichen Archive.

3rd Place: Kerry Lynch of the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives of SUNY-Albany, for the Finding Aid for the Vincent Schaefer Papers.

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2010

Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award: Lee Spilberg for the Guide to the Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Papers of the New York Public Library.

2nd Place: Matthew Yount and Alesha Shumar, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh for the Guide to the Helen Clay Frick Foundation Archives.

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2009

Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award $250.00: Jessica Weglein, Wendy Scheir, Jill Peterson, Susan Malsbury and Michelle Scwartz of The New York Public Library for the Guide to the New York World's Fair Records, 1939-40.

2nd Place $150.00: Cherie Acierno and Alegria Barclay of The New-York Historical Society for the Guide to the Records of the Children's Aid Society, 1836-2006.

3rd Place, $100.00: Lea Osborne of Columbia University for the Amos Vogel Papers, 1896-2001.

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2008

Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award $250.00: Erin Corley, Amy Morgan, Karen Weiss, and Barbara Aikens of the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution for the Oscar Bluemner Papers.

2nd Place $100.00: Tracy Harter, Greg Brown, Grover Saunders, Mark Purington of the Special Collections, Carrier Library, JMU Libraries & Educational Technologies, James Madison University for A Guide to the Shenandoah Valley Oral History Project, 2005-2006.

3rd Place, tie, $75.00 each

Soo Lee, Larry Weimer, John Zarrillo, Anthony Manganaro, Kristin Gahona, Deborah Goldsamt, Kim Adams, Julia Strohmeyer, Diane Kinney, and Brendan Heath of the Rutgers University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives for Inventory to the Papers of Harrison A. Williams, Jr.

David D'Onofrio, Barbara Ryan, Albert King, Caryn Radick of the Rutgers University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives for the Inventory to the Lenox, Incorporated, Records, 1889-2005: Introduction

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2007

Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award $250.00:

This award was awarded to a group of four finding aids created by staff at Princeton University.

Adriane Hanson for the NHPRC Economics Papers Processing Project, W. Arthur Lewis Papers.

Casey Babcock for the New Jersey Historical Commission General Operating Support Grant, H. Alexander Smith Papers.

Jennie Cole for the Council on Foreign Relations Processing and Digitization Project, Council on Foreign Relations Digital Sound Records.

Christie Lutz, Dan Brennan, and Rosalba Varallo for the Princeton University Archives Processing Project, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs Records.

2nd Place $150.00: Jonathan Lill of the Museum of Modern Art Archives for the Calvin Tomkins Papers.

3rd Place $100.00: Tracy Harter, Christina Bolgiano, and Julia Merke of the Carrier Library's Special Collections at James Madison University for the McHone Brothers (LLC) Collection of Houck Tannery Records, 1870-1913.

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2006

Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award $250: MacKenzie Bennett of the Museum of Modern Art Archives for The Art Lending Service and Art Advisory Service Records, 1948-1996

2nd Place $150.00: Kit Messick and Brad Campbell of the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts for their Guide to the Paddy Chayefsky Papers.

3rd Place $100.00: Jeannette Mercer Saber and Susan Hamburger from the Special Collections Library, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University Libraries, Pennsylvania State University for the Guide to the Kenneth Burke Letters to William H. Rueckert

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2005

Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award $250: Susan P. Waide, United States Sanitary Commission: Washington Hospital Directory Archives. Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library.

2nd Place $200.00: Caris Brown, Kim Dixon, and Gregory Pike, History Associates Incorporated, Joshua Lederberg Papers. National Library of Medicine.

3rd Place $100.00: Renee M. Savits, Guide to the Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia General Business Records. The Library of Virginia.

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2004

Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award $250: Rebecca L. Collier, The Korean War. [National Archives Records Relating to the Korean War. Reference Information Paper 103]. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

2nd Place–Repository Guide $50.00: Joelen El Bashir, Lela Sewell-Williams, Dr. Ida E. Jones, Donna M. Wells, Gladys Toney, and Richard E. Jenkins III, Guide to the Processed Collections in the Manuscript Division, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University.

SINGLE COLLECTION:

First Place $100: Emily Rafferty, Dr. Claribel and Miss Etta Cone Papers. Baltimore Museum of Art, Archives and Manuscripts Collections

Second Place $50: Ilana Lutman (Principal Archivist), Catherine N. Carson, Jennifer Crebs, Jacquelyn Ferry, Cortney Riley, and Mike Tavani, A Guide to the Assemblyman Eric N. Vitaliano Papers, College of Staten Island, City University of New York.

Third Place $50: Katherine A. Hayes, Finding Aid to the William F. Meggers Papers, Additions, American Institute of Physics. Center for History of Physics. College Park, MD .

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2003

Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award $200: Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library, Columbia University. Viola Wertheim Bernard Papers.

Please note: Rather than dividing the awards by category as has been done in previous years, the committee decided to give equal awards of $100 each to three other excellent finding aids. These were:

Kent A. Woynowski, History Associates, Inc., National Library of Medicine. Donald S. Fredrickson Papers.

Katharine Stefko, Bertha Adams, Adrianna Del Collo, Courtney Smerz, and Honor Keeler, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Fiske Kimball Papers.

Joseph Klett. New Jersey State Archives Website.

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2002

SINGLE COLLECTION:

First Place: $125. Elaine Stomber, "Guide to the Papers of Howard Chandler Christy." Lafayette College Special Collections & College Archives.

Second Place: $75. Kristine Marconi McGee, Finding Aid for the George W. Ball Papers, Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Department of Special Collections and Archives, Princeton University

Third Place: $50. Laura Peimer, Guide to the Goodyear Archival Collection, Brooklyn Museum of Art.

MULTIPLE COLLECTION:

First Place: Frederic M. Miller Finding Aid Award: $125. Gerald P. Gaidmore, Guide to Church Records in the Library of Virginia, Library of Virginia.

Second Place: $75. Albert C. King and Erika B. Gorder, Women's History Sources: A Guide to Manuscripts and Archival Collections at Rutgers University, Rutgers University Libraries Special Collections and Archives.

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2001

SINGLE COLLECTION:

First Place, Frederic M. Miller Finding Aid Award: William Stingone, Guide to the Carnegie Corporation of New York Records, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University.

Second Place: Brett M. Reigh and Patrick Henry Shea, Coxe Family Mining Papers, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Third Place: Kristine Marconi McGee, Guide to the Franklin Book Programs Archives. Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Seely Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University.

MULTIPLE COLLECTION:

First Place: Karen Huffman, Guide to the Washingtoniana's Oral History Research Center's Collection. Washington, D.C. Community Archives, D.C. Public Library.

Second Place: Sheridan Harvey, Janice E. Ruth, Barbara Orbach Natanson, Evelyn Sinclair, and Sara Day, American Women: A Library of Congress Guide for the Study of Women's History and Culture in the United States, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Third Place: Library of Virginia, Burned Records Counties Database.

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2000

SINGLE COLLECTION:

First Place: Cynthia K. Sauer, United University Professions Records. M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives, University at Albany, State University of New York

Second Place: Marcia Bassett, Guide to the Grace M. Mayer Papers, Museum of Modern Art.

Third Place: Barbara Addison, The Papers of Devere Allen. Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

MULTIPLE COLLECTION:

First Place, Frederic M. Miller Finding Aid Award: Ruth Hodge, Guide to African American Resources at the Pennsylvania State Archives. Pennsylvania State Archives.

Second Place: Niels Bohr Library, American Institute of Physics, Center for History of Physics Physics History Finding Aids.

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1999

First Place, Frederic M. Miller Finding Aid Award: United States Department of Agriculture, Guide to the USDA History Collection, 1761-1997. Alan Haeberle

Second Place, Large Repository: New York State Archives, The Union Preserved: a Guide to Civil War Records in the New York State Archives. Ed. by Harold Holzer. Compiled by Daniel Lorello.

Third Place, Large Repository: Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University, Fund for the Republic Archives. Kristine Marconi, et al.

First Place, Small Repository: Monmouth County Archives. Mary Ann Kiernan, webmaster.

Second Place, Small Repository: The Historical Society of Washington D.C., Charles Carroll Glover Papers, 1681-1991. Michelle Krowl, processor.

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1998

First Place, Fredric M. Miller Finding Aid Award: Helena Zinkham, A Guide to Print, Photograph, Architecture & Ephemera Collections at The New-York Historical Society.

Second Place: Princeton University, Seeley G. Mudd Library, Allen W. Dulles Papers.

Third Place: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, American Memory: America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA and OWI, ca. 1935-1945.

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1997

First Place: Lynn Ann Catanese, Hagley Museum and Library, Women's History: Guide to Women's History Sources at Hagley Museum and Library.

Second Place: Mudd Library, Princeton University, Association on American Indian Affairs Archives Papers. (Paper finding aid and web page.)

Third Place: Tammy Gobert and Henry Chauncey, Educational Testing Service Archives, The Chauncey Family Archives, 1669 to 1993; A Guide.

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1996

First Place: Deirdre E. Lawrence and Deborah Wythe, The Brooklyn Museum, Guide to the Culin Collection.

Second Place: Gail S. Terry, Virginia Historical Society, Documenting Women's Lives: A User's Guide to Manuscripts at the Virginia Historical Society.

Third Place: George Brightbill, Temple University, PASCL (Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries) Photograph Directory (2 vols.),

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1995

First Place: F. Holly Hodges, Guide to African-American Manuscripts in the Collection of the Virginia Historical Society.

Second Place: David Farneth, John Andrus, and Dave Stein, Guide to the Weill-Lenya Research Center, Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc., New York.

Third Place (tie):
a. Kristen D. Turner, A Guide to Materials on Women in the United Methodist Church Archives, Madison, NJ.
b. Daniel M. Fisher, Jr., Town of Hempstead Archives Repository Guide, Hempstead, NY.

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1994

First Place: Frank H. Serene, World War II on Film: A Catalog of Select Motion Pictures in the National Archives.

Second Place: Antonia S. Mattheou, The Guide to the Archival Records and Manuscripts of the Town of Huntington.

Third Place (tie):
a. Richard C.Wandel, Summary Guide to Current Collections, The National Museum & Archive of Lesbian & Gay History, The Lesbian & Gay Community Services Center, New York City,
b. Anne Mininberg and Nancy Polevoy, Guide to the Archives, Central Synagogue, New York City.

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1993

First Place: Linda Ries, Guide to Photographs at the Pennsylvania State Archives.

Second Place: Kathleen Roe, Guide to Records in the New York State Archives.

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1992

First Place: Jane Gottlieb, Steven E. Novak, and Taras Pavlovsky, Guide to the Juilliard School Archives.

Honorable Mention: Balch Institute, Guide to Manuscript and Microfilm Collections at the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies.

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1991

Barbara Lewis Burger, Guide to the Holdings of the Still Picture Branch of the National Archives.

James D. Folts, Duly and Constantly Kept, New York State Archives and Records Administration.

Diane Vogt O'Connor, Guide to Photographic Collections at the Smithsonian Institution, Vol. 2.

Allan Teichroew, W. Averell Harriman: A Register of His Papers at the Library of Congress.

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1990

Michael Plunkett, Afro-American Sources in Virginia: A Guide to Manuscripts, University of Virginia.

Pamela Kirwan Adams, Alexandra Weil, and Roland M. Baumann, Guide to the Women's History Sources in the Oberlin College Archives.

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1989

Charles E. Schamel, Mary Rephlo, Rodney Ross, David Kepley, Robert Coren, and Gregory Bradsher, Guide to the Records of the United States House of Representatives at the National Archives, 1789-1989.

Robert Coren, Mary Rephlo, David Kepley, and Charles South, Guide to the Records of the United States Senate at the National Archives, 1789-1989.

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1988

Wendy E. Chmielewski, Guide to Sources on Women in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

Cynthia Pease Miller, Guide to Research Collections of Former Members of the United States House of Representatives, 1789-1987.

Sandra Shaffer Van Doren, Register of the Archives of the Rohm and Haas Company.

T. Michael Womack, Archiv des Associatione Vereins zum Schultz deutscher Einwanderer in Texas and the Friedrich Armand Strubberg Collection, Beinecke Library, Yale University.

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1987

Lynn Ann Catanese, Guide to the Records of the Court of Common Pleas, Chester County, Pennsylvania, 1681-1900, Chester County Historical Society.

Mary R. Murrin, New Jersey Historical Manuscripts: A Guide to Collections in the State.

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1986

Claire Collier, Photograph Collections in the Rockefeller Archives Center.

Miriam I. Crawford with the assistance of Jun Hi Yu, A Descriptive Guide of the University Archives of Temple University (Its Conwelliana-Templana Collection).

Gary D. Saretzky and Jane E. Davis, A Guide to the Gertrude Hildreth Papers and Test Collection, Educational Testing Service Archives.

John R. Sellers, Civil War Manuscripts: A Guide to the Collections in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress.

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1985

No record in the MARAC Archives for an award this year.

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1984

Diane Windham Shaw, Guide to the Papers of Lawrence Henry Gipson, Lehigh University.

Debra L. Newman, Black History: A Guide to Civilian Records in the National Archives.

Gary D. Saretzky, Index to ETS Research Report Series, 1969-1982, Microfiche Edition, Educational Testing Service Archives.

Peter Wosh, Guide to Northern New Jersey Catholic Parish and Institutional Records.

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1983

William LeFurgy, Susan Wertheimer David, and Richard J. Cox, Governing Baltimore: A Guide to the Records of the Mayor and City Council at the Baltimore City Archives.

Merle Chamberlain, Inventory of the Archives, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Smithsonian Archives, Guide to the Smithsonian Archives, 1983.

National Archives, Guide to Genealogical Research in the National Archives.

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Last updated December 2024