Helpful Tips on Historical Research

Many writers set their work in the past, but only a very few have the luxury of a training in historical research. Yet online resources are making it easier than ever before to get to grips with the history that matters to your latest project.

As a university historian, I spend a lot of time explaining to students how to go about historical research. It isn’t a great mystery: there’s a simple formula that usually works.

First up, find out what’s already been written. Internet resources can be enormously helpful, but check the credentials of the writer if you can. Websites that end in .edu or .ac.uk will be linked to an educational institution.

Academic research on historical topics is often hidden behind a paywall on sites like JStor. Download charges can be hefty, so a good place to start with these is a university library. Most welcome members of the public as reference users, and allow you access to their full collection (including the paywalled articles) while on site. If you need a recent academic article, a polite email to the author will often get it for you without the download charge.

Once you’ve established what’s already known about your subject and setting, think about sources that haven’t already been tapped. Historical books and manuscripts can be a marvellous source of inspiration for writers, whether of non-fiction or fiction. And large-scale digitisation projects are now making more of that material more easily available.

Archive.org and Google Books offer free digital versions of out-of-copyright books, so you can leaf through the virtual pages of a rare sixteenth-century volume without so much as leaving your desk. The Vatican Library is now in the process of digitising its manuscript collections, while the Medici Archive Project is putting the records of the Florentine ruling family online (with English summaries). Long-running digital history projects like the Old Bailey Online are widely used as sources for research.

But still, not everything is on the internet. Most of my big documentary finds have been done the old-school way: by going to an archive and ploughing through papers. In the UK, you can get an idea of where relevant archives for your research might be through the Discovery section of the National Archives website. Most European countries have an equivalent. Drop the archivist a line before visiting to check if the material you want to see is available.

If you’re working on sixteenth-century or earlier documents, when handwriting could be very different, you may need some technical skills. Try one of the many free online palaeography courses, like this one from the National Archives or this one from the Institute for Historical Research, or sign up for the traditional face-to-face type at a university or research institute.

Even if you’re good at palaeography, though, you can run up against technical challenges. How long to spend trying to decipher that fiendish handwriting when you’re up against a deadline? Be reassured that even the most experienced professionals hit these issues too!

Whenever possible, I recommend visiting the historical sites you’re planning to write about. Even if they’re much changed, you might spot a view, or the way the sun falls, or come across a painting or fabric that makes you think differently about your subject.

Finally, don’t be afraid to ask an expert. I regularly get emails (and tweets) with questions about historical topics, and although I’m not the quickest responder I do my best to reply.

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Catherine Fletcher is the author of The Black Prince of Florence: the Spectacular Life and Treacherous World of Alessandro de’ Medici, published April 2016 by Bodley Head (the US edition, with Oxford University Press, is out in September) She’s Associate Professor in History and Heritage at Swansea University and a regular radio broadcaster on historical topics. Her website is www.catherinefletcher.info

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips