By Cassi Stanco, Class of 2013
The past couple of weeks have found me engrossed in a research journal for History 304. This archival research project was time consuming and, at times, quite frustrating. However, my work on this research journal has taught me how to conduct effective research.
Don’t think too narrowly: Part of my assignment was to find articles in online newspaper databases. My topic was the Carlisle home front during the Civil War and as I began to search online databases, which cover national newspapers, I found that my topic was just too obscure to easily locate information. As you can see from this post, no matter how many spellings or variations I tried, I was not able to glean any valuable articles. Then, I had a revelation. Originally, I focused only on the story of local troops. I broadened my search, looking for articles related to different aspects of the home front, namely articles relevant to women, like advertisements for household goods. As it turns out, advertisements are one of the most telling parts of a 19th newspaper. So if you get stuck on a research project, try broadening your focus a little and look into other aspects of your topic, which you might have previously ignored. This is a really good way to pull you out of a rut.
Persevere: Early on, I wanted to look into William Bratton, a Union solider, and son of the newspaper editor John Bratton. There was only one problem; I could not find any information on either Bratton. As you can see from this post, my initial, somewhat weak attempts yielded no information on this subject and at first I gave up, to a more interesting and accessible topic. However, with a little back tracking and the help of an archivist I was later able to find more leads on the Bratton family. This shows that perseverance is a must when conducting research. Sometimes when a search fails, it is not that the information does not exist; you just simply need to search harder, try new types of sources, and ask for a bit of help.
Use Microfilm: When researching, it is of utmost importance to use a wide variety of sources to find the best material. I for one found that although lots of people say it is too tedious, microfilm is a fantastic source for historians. Can microfilm be tedious? Yes, it can be. However, by determining a date range and using a systematic approach, microfilm is a supremely effective and interesting source. Viewing newspapers on microfilm allows you to view history in the making, just as like the readers of the past saw it. It also get allows you to see a whole newspaper issue, so that as you browse, you may just stumble upon a useful article where you were least expecting it.