Stephen A. Schwarzman Building > Collections & Reading Rooms > Manuscripts and Archives Division

Finding Materials in the Manuscripts and Archives Division

The begin your research familiarize yourself with the discovery tools described below.  You should also feel free to contact us with questions about how our collections may support your research at any time.

The Catalog

Most of the Divison's large collections (and an increasing number of its smaller ones) are cataloged in the Library's online catalog, now known as The Catalog The catalog contains collection-level descriptions with links to more detailed collection guides. The advantage to beginning with The Catalog is that you will be searching all of the Libraries resrouces, rather than just archival collections.

Archival Materials Access Tool (AMAT)

AMAT contains over 4000 entries for archival collections held throughout NYPL. Most entries include a links to a collection-level description. Over 2000 collections are described by detailed guides. AMAT searches the full-text of both types of descriptions.

Card Catalog

CATNYP and AMAT should be used in conjunction with the Division's card catalog available in the Division's reading room. The card catalog is alphabetically arranged and contains entries for names, subjects, geographic locations and types of documents (diaries, account books, logbooks, maps, literary typescripts, etc.).

The two-volume Dictionary Catalog of the Manuscript Division, (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1967) reproduces the card catalog as it appeared in 1966. Although it is no longer comprehensive, this important guide to our collections is available in research libraries throughout the world.

Published Guides

Published guides to our manuscript collections include the Calendar of the Emmet Collection of Manuscripts etc. Relating to American History (New York: The New York Public Library, 1959); Colonial Latin American Manuscripts in the Rich Collection by Edwin Blake Brownrigg (New York: The New York Public Library, 1978), Guide to the Budke Collection by John H. Bennett (Nyack: Benlind, 1975), Report on American Manuscripts in the Royal Institution of Great Britain (London: Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, 1904-1909), Catalogue of Cuneiform Tablets of the Wilberforce Eames Babylonian Collection by A. Leo Oppenheim (New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1948), and Islamic Manuscripts in the New York Public Library by Barbara Schmitz (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).

Surveys

Researchers wishing to locate letters and other documents of a specific person should also consult the survey files. These surveys list the materials (which we happen to have located) by a specific individual throughout our collections. The surveys are not comprehensive -they are meant to serve as a time-saving device so that the same collections need not be searched numerous times for the same material. Researchers are encouraged to search other collections that may prove fruitful for their research.