It’s a Virtual Outlet Mall for Archives

Search the ArchiveGrid  to find the personal and professional papers of the famous and not-so-famous stored in archives at institutions around the country.  ArchiveGrid provides links to finding aids and websites for each archive indexed. Some of the results might be surprising. You will find ArchiveGrid on Online Resources A-Z.

Here are some simple, Chicago-related examples to show how you could use ArchiveGrid for historical research and papers.

I entered a keyword search, “Clarence Darrow,”and found a scrapbook kept by his son, Paul Darrow, at the Newberry Library.  I also learned that Clarence Darrow’s trial strategy notes are in the Leopold and Loeb case at the Chicago History Museum.  The papers of Heber Doust Curtis, professor of astronomy, containing telegrams to and from Clarence Darrow relating to the Scopes trial are at the University of Michigan’s Bentley Historical Library.

A keyword search for “Mike Royko” resulted in a list of materials at the Chicago History Museum related to Paul O’Connor, Royko's assistant at the Chicago Daily News.  This search also revealed an exhaustive collection of Royko’s columns from all three major Chicago newspapers housed at the Newberry Library.

While searching for material about Albert R. Parsons (a labor writer and activist who was convicted in the Haymarket trial and executed), I found the papers of Illinois State’s Attorney Julius S. Grinnell, lead prosecutor for the Haymarket trial.  His papers are housed at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

These simple examples can help give you an idea of how ArchiveGrid might be used.