How do Professional Historians Conduct Research?
Curious about how professional historians find materials for their projects? Or what it’s like to research in an archive? Read below to learn more!
Professional historians work on many different kinds of research projects. For instance, they could write books or articles, produce documentaries, design museum exhibits, or make class materials. Each of these projects requires different kinds of sources. Moreover, the topic that a historian is working on also can determine the material that they would want to look for—and might also determine the amount of useful material that is still available to examine today.
All historians and all history projects are different. Generally, though, historians follow a typical series of steps to find the materials that they need for a new project.
Research Question
The first place that many historians begin is with a research question. This question is something that is interesting and also that might help illuminate something bigger about the past. This question provides the guiding principle behind the work that a historian does in the research process. If a source can help answer a question, then it should be examined. If the source seems irrelevant to a question, then it can be left out. Given how much material there is for many history projects, this initial question provides a way for historians to begin narrowing down what it is they really want to look at.
Sources
Once a historian has a research question, they need to begin considering what kinds of sources are likely to help them answer this question. Do they need sources from a particular country? Or from a certain person? Maybe they need a certain kind of source, like political cartoons or newspaper reports.
Historians then need to figure out where the materials that they need are located. Increasingly, much material is available online. That said, historians still do a lot of their research with actual sources. These sources might be housed in collections around the world. Researchers look through finding aids that describe the collections available at particular places to see if anything housed in these collections would be useful to their project. They might also look at the bibliographies of similar projects to see where they located the material. Once a list is drawn up with all possible source locations, researchers then have to make decisions about which places are most accessible and also which places might have the biggest possible impact on their work.
Archives
Once a historian decides on an archive that they need to visit, they usually have to email ahead of time to request a space in the research room and to request that the materials they will want on view will be made available to them.
There are many types of archives, and the type of archive will generally determine how a researcher will use it. Some archives—especially national archives—are set up to welcome dozens if not hundreds of researchers per day. These archives have many available places, but they might also have long waiting lists to access the materials on account of their important collections. Smaller archives might welcome only a few researchers a year, but they might also be more available to work directly with researchers and help them locate the materials that they need. The archivists know the collections better than anyone so they are an invaluable resource to any researcher.
Different archives have different policies, but in general, archives are very careful about their material. They want to make sure that it is returned in the same condition that it was given to a researcher. Pens and other kinds of writing implements that make permanent marks are generally not allowed. Moreover, archives want to make sure that they get all of their materials back—they play close attention to the materials that a researcher has been given and usually check them thoroughly when they are returned. Many archives only let a researcher have a few documents at a time just to make sure that everything stays in order. Chronology is crucially important to historians: if papers get out of order, researchers run the risk of thinking that things happened in a different order.
Researchers usually sit at tables or desks to review the documents. Some archives allow photographs of the material. In other spaces, researchers take notes about the sources, usually on tablets or laptops. Some historians, though, still prefer to write everything by hand!
Final Thoughts
Archives are usually used by professional researchers but that is only because professional researchers have the biggest need for them. In fact, very few archives limit who is allowed to research in them. Especially, national archives are free and open to anyone who would like to use them—even high schoolers are typically allowed to do their own research. Historians often agree that the research component is the most exciting part of the project. If you are interested, you can contact local archives close to you and ask about seeing some of their collection. Who knows what you might discover!
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