An Introduction to Archival Research in Business History

In an endeavour to encourage the use of archival resources in business history research, this article indicates which repositories contain the most useful collections of relevant records, explains why these documents are of such importance, assesses their strengths and weaknesses for historical investigation, and suggests the types of question each collection is most suited to address. It also tries to ease the pain of using these repositories by outlining what finding aids are available and suggesting any short cuts or necessary preliminary steps to their successful use. Finally it offers some ideas of organisations which exist, in part, to help the researcher locate papers on specific topics or firms.