The descriptive guide, both published and unpublished, created to establish physical, administrative or intellectual control over records and other holdings. Finding aids can include guides, inventories, checklists, card catalogs, indexes, calendars and box lists. Notes documenting the text, and corresponding to reference numbers in the text. The natural accumulation of original documents, created by an individual or family, most often in the form of handwritten or typed materials. They are in their original form, usually without explanation or interpretation.
Primary sources can be letters, diaries, court records, speeches and photographs.
They are accounts of the past created by people writing about events sometime after they happened. A part of an organization or institution, which preserves, describes and makes available rare or unique materials. They are usually found in a university setting. Often the Archives and Special Collections are housed in the same space. The Massachusetts Historical Society.