Help

New to researching in an archives?

Learn more about the functions of an archives and researching in an archives from select resources from the Society of American Archivists:

• What Are Archives?
• Using Archives: A Guide to Effective Research by Laura Schmidt
• Dictionary of Archives Terminology

What is in this catalog?

Our ArchivesSpace catalog contains finding aids about the Museum’s archival collections. Please note that not all the Museum’s archival collections are currently in the catalog. The Archives staff are regularly updating ArchivesSpace with new information.

What is a finding aid?

A finding aid is a structured, descriptive guide created by archivists to provide history, context, and an inventory of an archival collection. Finding aids help researchers determine if a collection is related to their research. It includes information about a collection’s origin (who created and who collected the records), the collection’s scope and content (size, dates, subjects, and record formats), access or use restrictions of a collection, and the collection’s arrangement (a hierarchical, nested listing of series, subseries, and folders).

How do I navigate the site?

In the menu bar:

• To see an alphabetical list of available collections, click on Collections.
• To see an alphabetical list of available subjects (indexed terms from the Library of Congress subject headings), click on Subjects.
• To see an alphabetical list of available names (indexed people and organizations from the library of Congress Name Authorities), click on Names.
• To see the catalog help page and FAQs, click on Help.
• To return to the home page, click on Home or the Museum’s logo at the top of the page.
• To search across the catalog, click the magnifying glass or use the search bar on home page.

How do I search for materials?

There are many ways that you can conduct your search. It's very similar to how you may search a library catalog and research database. You can search across the catalog or in a specific collection. Subjects and Names are also searchable. Review the instructions below for a basic search, an advanced search, narrowing search results, search tips, and search considerations to aid your searching techniques.

Basic Search

• Enter your search terms and start without parameters first.
• Add parameters if known, such as the years and/or select from the dropdown menu for Keyword (text from all finding aids), Title (titles of collections, series, subseries, and folders), Creator (creators of collections, not of series, subseries, folders or items), or Notes (note field sections of finding aids).
• Please note that the dropdown menu for “Search all record types,” the function to “Limit to digital materials” is not currently available for our catalog.

Advanced Search

• We recommend you start your search with broad search terms first, then review your search results, and narrow them as needed before an advanced search.
• Expand your search by clicking the plus (+) symbol at the right of the search bar to limit or include additional search terms. The additional search terms can run as a Boolean search with options in a dropdown menu to select it as “and,” “or,” or “not”.
• Use a combination of parameters, field selections, and additional search terms to narrow your results.
• To search a specific collection, select the collection from the Collections list. A search field will be available on the righthand side on a specific collection’s page.
• Review Search Tips and Search Considerations below for ways to create a more complex search.

Search Results

• Within your search results, you can sort them in the dropdown menu in the center right for Relevance, Title (ascending), Title (descending), Year (ascending), and Year (descending).
• Additional filters appear on the righthand side to limit and customize your results.
• Search within those righthand side filters to narrow search.
• In the upper right, you can refine your search to add or limit additional terms or start a new search.

Search Tips

• Searches are not case sensitive.
• Use AND to yield results with both search terms. Example: Exhibits AND Education.
• Use OR to yield results with one or both search terms. Example: Exhibits OR Education.
• Use NOT to exclude a search term. Example: Exhibits NOT Education.
• Use quotations ("") around a term for an exact phrase. Example: “Boston Society of Natural History".
• Use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard. Example: exhibit* will yield results starting with exhibit including exhibit, exhibits, exhibition, exhibitions, exhibiting, exhibited, etc. Do not use for the first character of a word.
• Use a question mark (?) as a wildcard. Example wom?n will yield woman and women. Do not use for the first character of a word.
• Use a tilde (~) to search for terms within a specified number of words from another search term. Example: exhibit bird~3 will yield results where the term exhibit occurs within 3 words of the term bird.

Search Considerations

• Please note that not all the Museum’s archival collections are currently in the catalog. The Archives staff are regularly updating ArchivesSpace with new information.
• For the dropdown search menu, Keyword refers to text from all finding aids, subjects, and names; Title refers to titles of collections, series, subseries, and folders; Creator refers to creators of collections, not creators of series, subseries, folders or items; and Notes refers to note field sections of finding aids.
• Not all collections, series, subseries, and folders have associated dates, creators, or descriptive notes, so we recommend you start your search with broad terms first. As you search, then you can review search results and refine them.
• When searching for a title, our collections are usually described at collection, series, subseries, and folder title levels, so if a name or term is not in those titles, it won’t appear in the results.
• Please note that the dropdown menu for “Search all record types,” the function to “Limit to digital materials” is not currently available for our catalog.
• Terms have changed over time, so you may need to try different word variations. Example: Denali vs Mount McKinley.
• Searching by date is approximate, and results may fall outside the date span you enter. Example: if you search for records between 1825 and 1875, your results will likely show collections and series with broader date ranges, such as a result with a date span of 1813-1830 since that date range includes the years 1825-1875.

Can I download a collection's finding aid?

Within each collection and in the upper right corner, there is the option to download a finding aid as a PDF. Depending on the size of a collection, it may take a moment to generate the file.

How can I request archival records from a finding aid?

Within a collection, series, subseries, or folder, you can click the request button in the upper right corner. If you have other questions or need assistance, please complete the inquiry form or email the Archives at Archives@mos.org. Due to high demand, there may be a delay with processing requests, and some requests may be unable to be fulfilled at this time. We appreciate your patience.

Where are your digital collections?

Currently, the Archives does not have digitized collections readily available online. If you would like to view a record that you found in the catalog, please email Archives@mos.org.Some publications by the Boston Society of Natural History were digitized by other institutions and are available in the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Where can I learn more about the Museum’s history?

Explore the Museum’s history through the Museum of Science Collective Memory and Building Our Museum: The Making of Science Park online exhibit. Select digitized and searchable publications by the Boston Society of Natural History are in the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Questions or feedback?

We welcome any questions, feedback, and reports of issues or corrections. Please email the Archives at Archives@mos.org or complete the inquiry form. Due to high demand, there may be a delay with processing requests, and some requests may be unable to be fulfilled at this time. We appreciate your patience.

For general information about the Archives, visit the Archives webpage.