The Library of Congress holds maps, photographs, newspapers, manuscripts, and other material useful for local and national history. Its catalog is a finding tool: some items are digitized, while others require a visit or a request.
Search from a question
Start with a place, person, and date range. Search the Library of Congress collections using alternate names and spelling variants. For newspapers, use the Chronicling America collection. For town layouts, use the Sanborn Maps collection. Check each collection's scope; absence from a search result does not mean a record never existed.
Open the item page and note its title, creator, date, collection, stable URL, and rights information. Read the full image rather than relying only on OCR. On a map, check the legend, scale, edition, and any later annotations. On a newspaper page, verify the masthead and issue date.
Use the record carefully
The Library's primary-source guide asks researchers to consider what a source reveals and what it leaves unanswered. A map may show a mine label; it does not prove a cache is present today. Compare important claims with records from a different creator or repository.
If a scan has multiple pages or sheets, cite the specific page you used. Save the item identifier and collection name alongside the image file.
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