Archives and Manuscripts
Collections at Harvard
Many, but not all, archival and manuscript collections at Harvard have records in HOLLIS. A keyword search limited to manuscripts sometimes retrieves many Harvard theses and dissertations (which are labeled as being both book and manuscript format). These can be eliminated by limiting the results to archival collections using the Command Search in HOLLIS Classic. Use searches of the form: censorship and wft=mx. More information on searching HOLLIS.
Many HOLLIS records for manuscript and archival collections have links to online inventories (finding aids) in another database called OASIS. Inventories usually consist of a list of folder labels and therefore offer a much more detailed description of collections than do HOLLIS records. All the OASIS entries can be searched globally on the OASIS web site (repository limitation available). Remember that by no means all harvard archival/manuscript collections have OASIS entries; many inventories must be consulted on paper. The new HOLLIS (not Classic) searches the full text of OASIS records, but searching the OASIS website offers more conrtrol.
For an in depth search for manuscripts at Harvard, you should talk with the librarians at the likely Harvard repositories.
Collections at Other Repositories
There are three major databases to search for archival and manuscript collections in the US: Archive Finder, ArchiveGrid, WorldCat. These overlap to some extent, but each has material not in the others.
Archive Finder. Archive Finder allows limitation to Massachusetts repositories or to individual repository. It has its own subject term system (different from HOLLIS), so note their terms and search accordingly.
WorldCat does NOT allow limitation to Massachusetts repositories or to individual repository. Thus, limitation of a search, as for “civil rights” to Boston sources, must be via Subject terms (the same ones used in HOLLIS): “Boston Mass” and “Massachusetts Boston”
ArchiveGrid includes many catalog records, but also many online inventories (including OASIS). Thus much more detailed searches are possible. One cannot limit geographically, but can limit by repository by including the repository name, in quotes, in the search.
Not all repositories with online finding aids have them in Archivegrid. The Massachusetts Historical Society has their catalog records in WorldCat with links to the online finding aids at their own searchable finding aid database
More details on Archive Finder, WordCat and ArchiveGrid are available.