• Historical Collections Home
• Collections
• General Information and Services
• Exhibits
• Current Research
• Research Fellowships
• Historical Research and Digital Assets
• Historical Returns Series
• HBS Faculty Papers Program (Intranet Login Required)

Finding Aids and Inventories

Most manuscript and archival collections have a finding aid, or collection inventory, that provides more detailed information about the collection, including a list of the boxes and volumes contained in the collection.

Collections vary in size from one volume to hundreds of boxes. The finding aid will help narrow down what portions of the collection may be relevant to your research project.

Many collections are stored off-site and must be ordered 2-3 days in advance. Researchers will either need to consult the collection finding aid in the Historical Collections Reading Room or obtain a copy before visiting in order to determine what specific collection materials to order.

Online Finding Aids

The Historical Collections Department is a contributor to OASIS (Online Archival Search Information System). This is a collaborative effort of the Harvard libraries to provide centralized access through a searchable database to finding aids for archival and manuscript collections.

A small number of online finding aids for the Business Manuscripts collections are not included in OASIS. These finding aids are available by subject or alphabetical listing directly through the Historical Collections Department web site.

Obtaining Copies of Finding Aids

All finding aids and inventories for the Historical Collections Department are available in the Historical Collections Reading Room.

Finding aids not yet available online can be photocopied and sent to researchers upon request. Copies are $0.25 per page plus a $5.00 processing fee. For more information or to request copies, please contact the Historical Collections reference staff.