Harvard Collections
Harvard is one of the world's largest repositories of manuscripts and archives. Most of Harvard's collections are represented in HOLLIS, but for an in depth search for manuscripts at Harvard, you should talk with the librarians at the likely Harvard repositories.
HOLLIS searches catalog records and online finding aids. Finding aids are searched full text and the associated catalog record is displayed with a link to the finding aid. Many archival collections have catalog records only, with their finding aids existing only in paper in their repository. Search in Library Catalog Advanced Search, adjusting Resource type tpo Archives/Manuscripts.
A limited number of finding aids which are very long are not fully indexed. Only the first ~80K words are indexed. (Affects ~ 115 finding aids, or 2%).
HOLLIS for Archival Discovery (the successor to OASIS) searches the full text of our digitized finding aids (only, no catalog records). Many of our finding aids have not been digitized and are represented only by catalog records in HOLLIS. HOLLIS for Archival Discovery retrieves displays collections (listed at the top of the results), then components of collections, usually individual items (sometimes digital) or series.
Collect Subject terms from pertinent records as you do keyword searches and look for related Subject terms. Subject terms for organizations are often useful in finding personal papers. The record for the John Warren papers bears the terms "Warren, John, 1753-1815" and "Harvard Medical School Curricula". The term "medical" occurs in the Summary field. Subject searches on medicine, physicians, or surgeons will not retrieve the record for the John Warren papers.
Requesting items once you identify them: It's important to contact the archive before your visit to be sure they have the materials available onsite. Also they may know more about what's available for your topic than is immediately clear in HOLLIS.
- If you've identified specific material you want to see:
- Use the Request to Copy or Visit link on the HOLLIS Record.
- In HOLLIS for Archival Discovery, drive down the outline to the item you want, then Add to My Request List
- The HOLLIS Special Request system is the way to set up a date and time to visit.
- Hit REQUEST on HOLLIS for Archival Discovery page
- If in doubt, contact the repository. List of repositories
Selected Research Guides and Collections
Archival Collections - Harvard Graduate School of Design
Center for the History of Medicine, Countway Library- Harvard Medical School
- Archives for Women in Medicine guide
- CHoM finding aids!
- contact Jessica Murphy
Houghton Library (rare books and manuscripts)
- Houghton Library: A Student's Guide
- Early Science at Houghton
- Early Modern Science at Houghton
- Modern History of Science at Houghton
Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
- All Schlesinger guides and contact information
- Women in Medicine at Schlesinger