How to Find Manuscripts

The Maryland Historical Society has more than 5 million manuscripts, organized into 3,000+ processed collections. Following the standard practice of most historical repositories, the MdHS catalog and finding aids do not list every sheet of paper separately for most collections. Instead, we provide access at the collection, box, or folder level, as appropriate.

Requesting Retrieval of Collections

Ordering Copies of Manuscripts

Finding Manuscripts

Here is how you can find information about our manuscript collections:

1. Use the online catalog: Each processed manuscript collection has an entry in the online catalog. This usually includes some description of what is in the collection. Manuscripts normally have an MS number or will be noted as being in the “Vertical File” or VF with a location of "Special Collections."

2. Check the finding aid: For about 500 of the 3,000+ manuscript collections, we also have finding aids, a more detailed listing of what is in the specific collection, usually including a listing by box and folder. There are several ways you can access finding aids:

a. Link through the catalog—if there is an online finding aid for a collection, there will be a link from the catalog which will appear both in the title list and in the catalog entry. Just click on the link, and you'll get to the finding aid. The catalog soon will have the capability of searching the linked finding aids, but for now, the catalog searches only the catalog entries, not linked documents.

b. You also can search the text of all the online finding aids at once by going to Search Library Web Pages. Enter a keyword in the box, and under “Search Options” click on “Search All Manuscript Inventories, Guides, and Finding Aids.” Here are two hints for using our webpage search engine:

i) If you want to search for more than one word, you must connect the words with AND in capital letters; otherwise, it will give you every webpage that has any of the words you want, not just those that have all the words you want.

ii) If you want to do another search, always return to the page that lists the “Search Options” and make sure that “Search All Manuscript Inventories, Guides, and Finding Aids” is checked. Otherwise, it will only search general Library webpages, which is its default setting.

c. You can browse the finding aids by going to our Main Finding Aids page and clicking on the appropriate letter.

d. Paper copies of the finding aids are filed by collection number in black binders in the McIlvain Special Collections Reading Room.