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 did you know
Did You Know?		 what do you see?
What Do
You See?		 what do you hear?
What Do You Hear? 		how does it read?
How Does It Read?

primary sources
Primary Sources

how do I find it?
How Do I Find It?
 meet the... Meet the...
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Resources

how do i find it? keyword searching

Pathfinder Searches Keyword Searching Search Problem Glossary
  1. Let's examine these three collections:

    American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940

    Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America: Photographs by Samuel Gottscho and William Schleisner, 1935-1955

    Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920
  1. Think of keywords that you can use to search for information about street vendors. List them on a sheet of paper.

  2. Click on Search in each of the collections.

  1. In the search box, type in the keywords you developed for searching.

    You may also want to select how the words are searched.

  • Match any of these words finds all the records containing any one of the words entered. This method will give you the most hits.
  • Match all of these words finds only the records containing all of the words entered. This method narrows the search.
  • Match this exact phrase finds only records containing all of the words you entered, in the order in which you entered them. This method is the most precise if you know exactly what you are looking for.

Street Cries and Criers of New York

Here's a song that greets you from the man wheeling a white cart, laden with foodstuffs:

"Sund'y folks eats chicken;
Mond'y ham an' greens,
Tuesd'y's de day fo' pork chops;
Wednesd'y rice an' beans.
Thuhsd'y de day fo' 'tatoes,
Candied sweets or French fried leans,
Fish on Frid'y some foks says,
But Sat'd'y gimme kidney beans,
Yasseh! Plain kidney beans!"

  1. Now click on Browse in each of the collections. Try to find information about street vendors using this method.

Additional Search Tips...

  1. The Collection Finder is another starting point for searching by broad topics, original format, or user format. For a brief descriptive overview of each American Memory collection, go to List All Collections from the Collection Finder page and choose the option to Show Titles and Descriptions.

  2. Searching individual collections is a better approach than trying to search across all of the collections.

  3. Browsing is an alternative to keyword searching and will familiarize you with the variety of subjects used.

  4. Some words that we use today are not the same words that were used in the past. Think about what they were called in the "Olden Days." Browsing the subject lists will give you some ideas. For instance, today we use the term gas or service station, but in the past the term was filling station.

  5. Use the names of towns, landmarks, bridges, and buildings as they were used at the time the collection materials were created. Sometimes these names can change over time.

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Last updated 09/26/2002