How to Search the English Heritage (EH) Public Archive - National Monument Record (NMR), The Women's Library (TWL) and the Trades Union Congress Library Collections (TUCLIB) for Information on Women's History and Architecture Topics.
First Steps
- researching women's history can be problematic because the significance of women's lives in the documentary record may be unrecorded, forgotten or obscured. This may mean you need to be more creative with your research and think laterally.
- consider thoroughly what you are trying to discover about your chosen subject, set yourself boundaries, and be precise. You will save time and frustration later on if you prepare carefully at this stage.
- make a list of specific research questions.
- all three collections have websites (click on 'searching the archives' below for links). Your first step should be to get to know the websites. Information with regard to your questions may be found on these sites or the links provided.
- returning to the first point, make an imaginative and broad list of search terms around your chosen subject. Think of as many similar words as possible for your search term with as many connections.
- always remember the issue of women's name changes covering birth, marriage/s, profession, titles and nicknames. Women who marry several times will usually have several name changes and traditionally many women took their husband's first name as well. This requires precision to avoid confusion and mistaken identity.
- think laterally, you can often find links via male relatives.
- as always with documentary research, keep clear and accurate records of what you find, date your visits, number pages and record the source of the information, as well as catalogue information. This will save you time later, and will ensure that your research is accurate.
- consult the websites of the three archives listed here in a comparative way to make connections and trace networks across the collections.
