Research Guides: *Primary Sources: A Guide: Organizational Records

Working with Organizational Records

Organizations represent a wide range of formal groups, organized around a central purpose or mission. Under this definition, organizations include business, religious groups, activist groups, professional associations, and more. We can also think of government as a form of organization, but we deal with government and their documents separately below.

Just as organizations pursue a diverse range of activities, they also produce many different types of documents. Internal meeting minutes may reveal how an organization was administered or reached important decisions, while marketing materials and press releases aimed at the broader public illustrate how a group tried to persuade the public on an issue or in the marketplace.

When considering how to use organizational records, consider the following?

Who wrote this?
Does the mission of the organization change how we think about this document? (e.g. commercial advertising, missionary publications, civil rights activists' pamphlets)
Was this document created for the public, or was it only meant to be used privately by an individual or office?
Whose perspective is missing from this publication?

Businesses

Lehman Brothers archives
The business records highlight the administrative and financial activities of Lehman Brothers, and include board meeting minutes, company strategy, financial operations, communications material and reports, and correspondence. Office and client files detail the business practices of Lehman Brothers and Kuhn, Loeb & Co. The bulk of the material dates from the 1960s to the 2000s. Also includes over 900 deal books, from 1925-1986.
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Digital archives provided by the Baker Library and Bloomberg Center of the Harvard University Business School.

Literary Print Culture This link opens in a new window
Sourced from the archive of The Worshipful Company of Stationers & Newspaper Makers, located at Stationers Hall in the City of London, Literary Print Culture: The Stationers Company Archive, 15542007, allows access to a vast and unique collection of primary source documents. The collection is widely regarded as one of the most important primary sources for studying the history of the book as well as publishing history, the history of copyright and the workings of an early London Livery Company. Explore the variety of documents to uncover the story of the role the Stationers Company played in the history of the book trade.
Abbreviation: amlpc
Vendor: Adam Matthew Digital Ltd
Coverage: 15542007
Subjects: History, Literature
Type: Government Publications, Historical / Primary Sources, Images
American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals (AAS) (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
This varied database includes several collections of business and trade magazines, a great source for studying the major trends and issues within a profession. Trade magazines also reveal how these business organizations communicated to professionals working in their field.
Abbreviation: aas
Vendor: EBSCO
Coverage: 1684-1912
Subjects: History
Types: Historical / Primary Sources

Political and Social Organizations

American Civil Liberties Union Papers, 1912–1990 This link opens in a new window
The ACLU papers collection includes legislation, legal briefs, correspondence, memos, meeting minutes, reports and more covering the work of the organization on a range of issues. Subjects include: the first “Red Scare” following the Russian Revolution of 1917; debates in the 1920s on immigration; the American Birth Control League; lynchings in the 1930s; debates on aliens and immigrants in the years immediately preceding the U.S. entry into the Second World War; and the ACLU’s involvement in the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement.
Abbreviation: aclupap
Vendor: Gale
Coverage: 1912-1990
Subjects: African-American Studies, Communication, History, Law, Political Science
Type: Historical / Primary Sources, Reports

Missionaries & Religious Groups

International Mission Photography Archive (IMPA)
Offers historical images from Protestant and Catholic missionary collections in Britain, Norway, Germany, France, Switzerland, and the United States. The photographs, which range in time from the middle of the nineteenth to the middle of the twentieth century, offer a visual record of missionary activities and experiences in Africa, China, Madagascar, India, Papua-New Guinea, and the Caribbean

American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals (AAS) (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Among the 50 thematic subsets from the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) are numerous periodicals published by missionary groups affiliated with almost every Christian denomination, working in areas close to home and across the globe. Coverage is mostly from the nineteenth century.
Abbreviation: aas
Vendor: EBSCO
Coverage: 1684-1912
Subjects: History
Types: Historical / Primary Sources

Professional Associations

American Medical Association (AMA) Archives
Digital access to Proceedings of the House of Delegates and other materials from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Great for tracking historical debates and concerns of the medical profession.