Doing military aircraft and related research at National Archives II

[B24RESEARCHER]

Anyone who has ever done research has encountered someone who thinks that just because he or she has read a file he owns the information in it. Obviously this is not a healthy viewpoint. I've met two in nearly 40 years of research.

So...to facilitate actual research and its dissemination, here is a primer on how to search a big chunk of the USAAS/USAAC/USAAF records found on the Second Floor at the National Archives II in College Park, MD from the comfort of your home computer! You can then walk in mostly ready to go to fill out your "pull forms" and start the actual research right away.

ALL the documents are in the Public Domain and have been declassified. You can copy them, sigh over them, etc. The information is not private, is not part of any sort of Intellectual Property, cannot in and of itself be copyrighted. The specific words you use to write about a topic in a book or magazine article can be copyrighted. However, THE BASIC INFORMATION CANNOT BE COPYRIGHTED. You can use the same data, write about it, reach the same conclusions, etc. You just cannot use someone else's specifically written words without attribution.

Anyway, here is where the fun starts!

The repository for USAAS/USAAC/USAAF and early USAF documents is the Sarah Clark collection, identified as RG342 (Record Group 342) by the Archives.

Fortunately, after years of fighting pretty worthless "find aids", Sarah Clark is now available to search by computer!

Here's how.

Go to: http://www.archives.gov/research/ARC/

Then, on the left side of the page you will see: Record Groups and Collections (Indexes)(http://www.archives.gov/research/ARC/topics/rg-collections/)

Click on that (or use these links). The next page that appears will have Record Groups and Collections in ARC across the middle. Click on "Index to Record Groups in ARC in numeric order by RG number" (quotes mine) just below that.

On the next page, click on the group 300-399 (http://www.archives.gov/research/ARC/topics/rg-collections/rg-300-399.html).

That will take you to a list of RGs. Scroll down to RG342 (http://arcweb.archives.gov/ARC/action/ExternalIdSearch?id=654&jScript=true).

NEXT, scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will see, in small blue letters "Search within this Record Group"

Click on that one (http://arcweb.archives.gov/ARC/action/BasicSearchForm?%24searchId=2&%24withinParent.sourceSearchId=2&%24showFullDescriptionTabs.selectedPaneId=&%24digiDetailPageModel.currentPage=0&%24partitionIndex=0&%24digiSummaryPageModel.targetModel=true&%24submitId=1&%24withinParent.titles=Records+of+U.S.+Air+Force+Commands%2C+Activities%2C+and+Organizations%2C+1900+-+2003&%24withinParent.idsString=654&%24resultsDetailPageModel.search=true&%24digiDetailPageModel.resultPageModel=true&%24resultsDetailPageModel.currentPage=0&%24resultsDetailPageModel.pageSize=1&%24sort=RELEVANCE_ASC&%24highlight=false).

The next page you get to is the beginning of your actual search and is labeler "ARC - Archival Research Catalog" In the Search box type in what you are looking for. Use EVERY kind of term you think of - the aircraft designation, manufacturer, words like cal (for caliber) mm, XF, XB, Bomb (which will also get you all the bomber stuff, etc. Before you hit the Search button again go to the Limit results to box and change the number to 2000. I've only maxed that out once, but there are a lot of times you get 1400 or more.

If you would like to limit the number of hits, next click on Advance Search (http://arcweb.archives.gov/ARC/action/AdvancedSearchForm?%24searchId=2&%24withinParent.sourceSearchId=2&%24showFullDescriptionTabs.selectedPaneId=&%24digiDetailPageModel.currentPage=0&%24partitionIndex=0&%24digiSummaryPageModel.targetModel=true&%24submitId=1&%24withinParent.titles=Records+of+U.S.+Air+Force+Commands%2C+Activities%2C+and+Organizations%2C+1900+-+2003&%24withinParent.idsString=654&%24resultsDetailPageModel.search=true&%24digiDetailPageModel.resultPageModel=true&%24resultsDetailPageModel.currentPage=0&%24resultsDetailPageModel.pageSize=1&%24sort=RELEVANCE_ASC&%24highlight=false).

Your search parameter will be in the box. DON'T TOUCH IT. Go down to Type of Archival Materials and click Deselct all. Then click the box Textual Records. If you don't click on that you will get all sorts of references to movies, etc., which may also be what you're looking for, but I'm talking paper records here.

Next click on Location of Archival Materials. When that comes up click once more on Deselect all, then click the third item in line, Archives II Reference Section (Military), Textual Archives Services Division. Go to the bottom of the page and click on Search.

Now the fun starts.

You will get anywhere from 1 to 2000 records having to do with your search. Each response will have a blue underlined name. Click on that. Then copy that and the ARC Identifier line below it and paste it onto your word processor page. That information will be critical when you want to pull the data. I did a quick search on P-40 and came up with this delicious little tidbit

Modification Drawings of P-39, P-40, P-43, P-47, P-51, P-51A, P-51B, P-51D [RD 946]

ARC Identifier 4597724 / MLR Number P 27, UD 1001-A (...)

That top line is the title and the RD946 is also critical for getting the right box. COPY BOTH LINES.

Next, you will see three tabs - Details Archived Copies Hierarchy

Click on Archived Copies. About 2/3rds of the way down the page you will see Container ID: and a number. THAT is the treasure chest in whcih all these goodies reside. COPY THAT AND PASTE NEXT TO THE BOX INFO YOU ALREADY PASTED. THAT IS ALMOST ALL THE INFO YOU NEED FOR THE SEARCH FORM YOU NEED TO SUBMIT.

There are over 7,000 boxes of stuff in RG342 alone. My next trip to Archives (in about a month) has forty pages of boxes to go through for my next book alone.

Then just use the arrow at the top of the page and go back to the list of your search results, find one you like and do it again!

The information is all Declassified and in the Public Domain. ANYONE can see it, read it, copy it, talk about it, write about it, share it.

I strongly recommend a good portable scanner. You should also know there are TONS of photos hiding in these files of stuff that nobody knows about. You will see even more of these appearing in my next books.

And there you have it. A one longgg page primer on how to research at NARA II in College Park. You will also note that RG72 is Navy stuff. RG18 and 341 are also USAAC/etc. but the search engine totally sucks when it comes to those.

Enjoy your research!

Alan Griffith

Aviation Researcher/author/illustrator

Edited March 28, 2012 by B24RESEARCHER

[Rob de Bie]

Alan, thanks for taking the time to post these instructions. I tried it tonight, and although the URLs no longer seem to work, I managed it with your instructions. Without them I don't think I would have ever found anything. My search results consisted only of movies, which I found surprising. Is it a media archive?

Rob

[B24RESEARCHER]

Rob,

While I've not had any searches that ended up only Moving Images, I've had some that were 99% that and most of those nothing to do with what I thought I was searching on.

It is very important to use the Advanced Search command in order to focus your results around your search parameter. You can search on Moving Images, Textual, Photographic, etc. I really recommend you narrow your search as much as possible with each try. You will notice that there are a couple of files that seem to come up no matter WHAT you search on. I've not figured that one out yet.

Have tried any more searches?

Alan Griffith

[dnl42]

Here's how.

Go to: http://www.archives.gov/research/ARC/

Alan, I'm certain you pasted in the correct URL, but it seems this web site insists that "ARC" always appear in upper case!

So, to everybody who reads this, click the above link and wait for the "File Not Found" page, then click the black "Research Our Records" menu item near the top of the page and then click "Archival Research Catalog (ARC)" in the "Search Online" box.

Or, just copy the URL, paste in the your browser's address bar, retype "ARC" in lower case, and finally hit return! :)

Alan, thanks for the intro. Excellent work, as appears to always be the case.