Documenting Disaster: Archives
Searching Archives
Searching Archives
Resources in this section will help you locate and search specific archives and their collections.
An important difference between searching libraries and archives is that while library catalogs let you locate all the library's individual items (such as books), archival finding aids provide descriptions of collections (such as five boxes of letters). These finding aids do not necessarily describe every individual item within the archive.
Many archival finding aids can be searched online, but most archival collections have not been digitized. If you locate an item using a finding aid, you can visit the archive and request to see and copy the item in person. Or, you can usually ask the local archivists to digitize and share a copy of that item for a fee. Check the archive's website for details.
In addition, archival collections usually contain materials that have not been described using finding aids, or that may be connected to material you have found. Talk to local archivists to get a fuller sense of what an archive contains.
- Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO)Search the finding aids of archives across Texas.
- Woodson Research Center (WRC) ArchivesSpaceSearch the collections of Rice University Fondren Library's Woodson Research Center.
- Rice Digital Scholarship ArchiveSearch the institutional repository for the university where you can find the Campanile, the Rice Thresher, digitized images, oral histories, and much more.
- Historical Environmental ResearchThis guide provides archival resources at the Woodson Research Center for those doing environmentally-focused historical research.
- ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new windowSearch finding aids from over 1,000 archives across the country.
- WorldCat This link opens in a new windowLimit results to Archival Materials, or click the Archival tab in the results list, to see archival records from library catalogs around the world.
- Local collectionsThis page lists links and addresses for museums and archives in the region, from the website of The Gulf Historical and Biographical Record.
Thematic Archives
Thematic Archives
These are digital archives dealing specifically with disasters.
- Houston Flood MuseumFounding Director Prof. Lacy M. Johnson. "Our mission is to exhibit the connections between human activities and catastrophic flooding — as linked to wealth inequality and racial disparities– and to act as a catalyst for reimagining the ways Houston, the Gulf Coast, and the wider world evolve in a context of persistent natural disasters."
- Hurricane Digital Memory Bank"Launched in 2005, the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank uses electronic media to collect, preserve, and present the stories and digital record of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita."