Archives Department

Our finding aids describe historical materials that reflect the attitudes, ideas, and norms of the time periods and cultures in which they were created and may include direct quotations or detailed descriptions of original documents that use inappropriate or harmful language. While our staff strives for equitable and inclusive description, we recognize that this has not always been the case. Legacy finding aids may reflect the time periods in which they were created and the biases of the people who created them. These finding aids are available online because the access that they provide to primary source materials is uniquely valuable to the research community at large.

Our efforts to repair outdated descriptions and to describe our collections in an equitable way are iterative and ongoing.

For more information on harmful content in our collections, see Digital Commonwealth’s statement on harmful content. 

We are always in the process of adding collection descriptions to archives.bpl.org and updating our current collection descriptions. Our finding aids have evolved over time in a range of formats; we are actively working to create more complete, equitable, and accessible collection descriptions.

Help us improve our finding aids! 

• Have you spotted an error, typo, or something that is misidentified?
• Have you identified language that is harmful, offensive, or misleading?
• Have you found some confusing notes or organizational structures?

Let us know! Our goal is to describe collections to make them easier for you to use. Send us a note at specialcollections@bpl.org. Please include a link or reference to the online record.