A Finding Aid is a document written by archivists to describe an archival collection. A Finding Aid describes the history of a collection and the arrangement of material, to help a user navigate the contents of the collection and identify material relevant to their research.
Each collection in an archive should have a dedicated Finding Aid. Though the Finding Aid may be an unfamiliar document at first, most Finding Aids followed a regular, shared structure. Once you learn to understand the parts of a Finding Aid, you should be able to navigate the collections of most archival institutions.
A Finding Aid can be divided into two sections:
Front Matter - includes summary information that describes the entire collection as a whole
Inventory - provides an outline that identifies the series, boxes, folders, and items within the collection
See the tabs above to read more about each section of the Finding Aid
Porter Campus
1801 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02140
617-349-8070
South Campus
89 Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-349-8850