Chapter 26Free sample

Archives & Historical Sources

Archival records, old court files, founding-era sources, old newspapers, oral histories.

A reporter exists in thousands of copies; an archival record is usually one paper in one building, inside folders its custodian built. So cite it like a catalog entry: the item, each container around it, the custodian, and the identifier that ties them together. A June 2026 dissent cited an 1863 letter on the citizenship of foreigners’ children born here, Trump v. Barbara, No. 25-365, slip op. at 22 n.4 (U.S. June 30, 2026) (Thomas, J., dissenting); the diagram rebuilds it in our form.

A letter in the National Archives, from the item to the building

Letter from A. A. Atocha, Judge, Provost Ct., Dep’t of the Gulf, to Brig. Gen. James Bowen, Provost Marshal Gen. (Nov. 12, 1863) (copy), File No. G480 (1863), Letters Received, Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, Record Group 94, National Archives at Washington, D.C., https://catalog.archives.gov/id/85651033.

1 item, from its face: writer and recipient with positions
2 date on it; “copy” as it says
3 file unit: its number and year, from the catalog
4 series
5 record group: name, number
6 repository and city
7 catalog address on the NAID

We print the citation roman, except a case name or the document’s own title: the rest is a finding path, not a title. Elsewhere: captured web pages (20.4), papers on a live docket (16.4), letters no archive holds (chapter 21). A foreign archive belongs here: same order, its own reference code, and the country after the city for a reader abroad.