Using the Archive
There are three different ways to search the sources on this site:
- Browse Documents by Category
We would recommend this approach to instructors and students who are interested in finding a variety of documents on a particular historical period (e.g., the Reformation, the First World War) or a relatively broad theme within a particular historical period (e.g., urbanization in the late nineteenth century). Documents that fit under several headings are cross-referenced to help ensure that users find as many relevant sources as possible. - Search by Keyword
Keyword searches will be especially helpful to instructors and students who are searching for documents on somewhat narrower topics, such as a specific person, place, or event, since these are unlikely to figure as categories or subcategories. The keyword option is also recommended for users who are interested in a theme across a range of time periods (e.g., the Catholic church). We have tried to input a variety of keywords for each document to make these searches as productive and inclusive as possible. But as with any keyword function, these selections never exhaust the possible search terms. People, places, and themes that are only mentioned in passing in a given document will generally not be designated as searchable keywords. - Search Full Text
This search covers all documents in the collection. Users will get a list of all documents in which the search term appears, but if they want to find out where within a document in appears, they will need to open the document and use the "find" option.
Download Adobe Acrobat
Many of the documents on this website are available in PDF format. To view them you will need to download and install a free version of Adobe Acrobat.
