Lesson 7 Part I--(Archive Grid)

Lesson 7—ArchiveGrid and CAMIO This week we are looking at two specialized resources that can help you with historical and genealogical research and art and image searching. The lesson is broken into two parts, one section for ArchiveGrid and one for CAMIO. Please do both Discovery Exercises and see what you can find!
ArchiveGridFor historians researching Sitting Bull and genealogists tracing their roots, ArchiveGrid can be a boon. ArchiveGrid lives up to its slogan, as it truly does open the door to history. It provides online access to nearly a million descriptions of archival collections held by thousands of libraries, museums, historical societies and archives worldwide, including the Minnesota Historical Society, the University of Minnesota, the Art Institute of Chicago, Cornell University, and the Smithsonian Institution. Historical documents, personal papers and family histories are just some of the materials indexed.Due to access restrictions, ArchiveGrid is available only within schools and libraries, not from home.ArchiveGrid is not full text. It tells where an item or collection is located and gives contact information for the entity owning the material. You can take it from there.Discovery Exercise Part 1You will need to complete this exercise at your school or library. ArchiveGrid is not accessible from home.ArchiveGrid gives quite a bit of information in many of its descriptions. You can access Archive Grid via this alphabetical list.
1. Type “Sitting Bull autograph card” in the search box, using the quotation marks. Click the link and read the description. What did you learn about Sitting Bull?2. Do a search of your own. What results did you get? What institutions have the materials? What other observations can you make about this resource?

I learned his Sioux name--Tatanka Iyotake or Tatanka Iyotanka or Ta-Tanka I-Yotan. I did not know that he had fled to Canada before they were arrested. I learned that this collection is housed at Cornell University and is catalogued with 3 different parts. I also saw what the archive covers.

I found other resources--often at east coast Universities--such as Yale. I have always found this interesting--that in our own space--it took so long to value the works and precious realia of some of our most outstanding natives--both Native American and white.