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October is American Archives Month!

Special Collections
Samuel Bradley Folsom enlistment in Continental Army, 1777. Item 31479006510852 in the Senter Digital Archive.

The Special Collections team at Haverhill Public Library is always celebrating archives, and this month we are bringing the celebration to you, our patrons! We have an extensive and ever-growing collection archival materials, and we want you to know about them and what they can do for you.

So, you might be asking, what exactly is an archive? What are archival materials?

In short, archives are collections of unique records that tell the story of a person, organization, or event from a first-hand perspective. For the most part, an archival collection contains primary source materials, such as letters, newspaper articles, ledgers, and other one-of-a-kind original documents.

Twenty-one factory workers, shoe manufacturing company, 1900. Item 31479006607575 in the Senter Digital Archive.

For example, if you were researching the Labor Movement, you would gain a valuable first-hand perspective about it by reading the correspondence of Haverhill shoe factory workers during the Industrial Revolution. We have letters like this in Special Collections!

Another example is using photographs to learn more your chosen topic. Curious about the history of your house? Want to know just how high the floodwater got during the Flood of 1936? Maybe you are interested in what kinds of clothing people wore in the 19th century? We have thousands of photographs in our Senter Digital Archive that can show you.

Corner Emerson Street and Washington Square, flood of 1936. Item 31479006617491 in the Senter Digital Archive.

As the National Archives puts it, “when we ask [researchers] to work with and learn from primary sources, we transform them into historians. Rather than passively receiving information from a teacher or textbook, [they] engage in the activities of historians — making sense of the stories, events and ideas of the past through document analysis.” Learn more about using primary source materials here: https://www.archives.gov/education/teaching-with-documents

Men in formal dress along bank of Merrimack River with Haverhill Bridge in background. Item 31479006614670 in the Senter Digital Archive.

The Special Collections staff would love to help you with your research project – whether it is for work, school, or just for fun! Stop in anytime Special Collections is open or browse the Senter Digital Archive anytime. More Special Collections information is always available in our corner of the HPL website: https://haverhillpl.org/special-collections/