Lincoln Research

[Rob Wick]

For me, Danny, a lot of the answer depends on what you're trying to accomplish with your research. If you're just doing it for yourself, then I would say your #3 is the best way to go about it. However, if you want to publish your research either in a journal, popular magazine article, or book that is a whole other matter.

I first got interested in Ida Tarbell when I was researching Carl Sandburg's study of Lincoln. Tarbell and Sandburg were very close and between the two of them sold more books on Lincoln than all other authors combined. I knew I would eventually have to go through her papers but I also knew they were in Pennsylvania and at the time I had no idea they had been microfilmed.

When I was in college I had a historical methods professor who said the only way we will ever stay with a topic of research is to pick something we personally find interesting. All my life I've always been fascinated by how things work. For some reason I've always found the creation of books and articles, from a historical perspective, to be interesting.

One night while Googling another historian I came across a few letters that had been written by Tarbell. I just assumed they were outliers that someone had posted to the web. When I clicked on them, I discovered that Allegheny College, Tarbell's alma mater, was in the process of digitizing all her letters and manuscripts that she, and later her heirs, had donated to the college. I realized that no one had done for Tarbell what I was attempting to do for Sandburg, and thus was born a new project.

How one approaches research is a matter of personal taste. For me, the first thing is to discover where the papers of those I am interested in are located. One CANNOT do original research without the original source documents. Fortunately, with the internet doing so is much easier. There are a couple of websites that make that task a lot easier. The first is the electronic version of the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections, known to researchers as NUCMC (pronounced Nuck-Muck). The second is called ArchiveGrid and is part of the WorldCat search engine. I use both.

Second, if the person I'm studying is an author, I will find used copies of all of that person's books. Fortunately, much of Tarbell's work was written before 1922 so much of it is in the public domain and can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. However, I've had to buy physical copies of everything after that. If the person or event you're studying is not an author, but there are books available, I would recommend getting them as well. WorldCat is a good resource for finding what libraries hold a particular book or books by an author.

Personally, I don't do any reading of secondary literature until I've exhausted the primary material. In the case of an author, primary material includes their books. I've found that by reading the primary stuff first, it gives me more insight into what other writers have written and whether or not I agree with them. There's only been two biographies written about Tarbell, so I read the most important because I hadn't made up my mind whether or not I was going to pursue the topic.

There are some people who don't do their research the same way that I do, and I have no issues with the way they approach it. In some cases I can even imagine that a person, especially if they're not very familiar with a topic, would be be better off finding a couple of recent books about it and learning whatever they can. But just remember, the author has already gone through the primary material and read all the relevant secondary material and chosen what to leave in and what to leave out. The biography I mentioned of Ida Tarbell is an excellent book that still deserves to be read to this day. Yet the author didn't delve too much into Tarbell's study of Lincoln. For a general biography that is fine, and in my opinion, actually expected.

If you're focusing on a person (not necessarily an author, but someone heavily involved in the event you're studying) you also need to find out where the primary material for that person's contemporaries is kept. In that case that's where the footnotes and the bibliographies come in handy. It's not enough for me to talk about how Ida Tarbell approached Lincoln. For it to be well-rounded and to contribute something original to the discussion, I have to compare her with William E. Barton, Albert J. Beveridge, and Carl Sandburg, not to mention other lesser-prominent authors.

Another thing to consider is how much money can you devote to this? While most libraries are willing to copy items or scan them into PDF format for you, most will also charge you. I've had some libraries not charge me for an item of one or two pages, but recently the Library of Congress, which was the only place I could find that had the item I needed, charged me $38 for three pages. If you live in an area or near to one that has material, that will help on the expenses, but plan to spend more money than you think you'll ever get back on your projects. If you know that most of the material you will need is in a particular location, try to find a competent researcher that can help you out. I have two, one located in Chicago and the other in Washington, D.C. Neither is cheap, but both have done excellent work for me and even at what they charge I cannot go there and get the items.

If I was you, I wouldn't try to focus on something that's never been brought out before, because on Lincoln you'll have better luck finding a four-leaf clover. What I would recommend is to pick something that interests you completely and depending on your knowledge level, either read the most recent book on the topic or an article and go from there. There is absolutely nothing illegitimate about taking a topic that has been covered in the past and putting your own spin on it. Again, much of that will depend on what you want to do with the research. For an academic journal, they want something new, either new information or a new interpretation. A popular magazine article, on the other hand, wants an interesting angle on something that may or may not be well known.

One other point. There are numerous books out there written for undergraduate students who are just beginning the study of history and research. The two that I used in college are The Historian's Handbook by Wood Gray and The Modern Researcher by Jacques Barzun. Both are older works, but both still have a great deal to teach about how to do research.

With all that said, the one thing I would emphasize is there really is no right or wrong way to do research. Whatever works best for you is the best method to use. In the 35 or so years that I've done this I've found that much of it is trial and error. Just understand that for every three steps forward you will take in doing research, sometimes you'll take two steps back and have to start on another path.

Just as an aside, to give you an idea of what I've done so far, I've attached a copy of my working bibliography that shows all the manuscript collections I've utilized and the other materials, both primary and secondary, that I have used or will use.

I hope this helps.,

Best
Rob