Getting Started With Your Research
Guides
The Center for Legislative Archives has created a variety of guides to assist researchers in learning more about the records in our holdings. The guides of the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, and Joint Committees of Congress provide an overview of unpublished records held at the National Archives. There are guides to:
- Guide to Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1789-1989
Covers the period 1789-1989. Discusses jurisdiction, history, and records created by each committee during the period. - Guide to the Records of the U.S. Senate, 1789-1989
Covers the period 1789-1989. Discusses jurisdiction, history, and records created by each committee during the period. - Guide to the Records of the Joint Committees of Congress
Describes the records comprising Record Group 128, Records of Joint Committees of Congress. Joint committees are committees whose membership is drawn from both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
History Hub
The Center for Legislative has published answers to frequent questions in the Legislative Community on History Hub. We also have a Legislative Record Blog, in which we go deeper into popular topics, such as:
- Senate Records Relating to American Indian Treaties
- Records of the House Committee on Un-American Activities
- Records of the Southern Claims Commission
The Center has also published through History Hub a three part introductory series on how to get started with legislative research:
Finding Aids and Preliminary Inventories
The Center for Legislative has various finding aids and preliminary inventories for selected records. Our preliminary inventories are detailed finding aids that include descriptions of series, and in some instances include folder titles, at the record group or committee level. These inventories are available in our research room, and are also being added to the National Archives Catalog.
Online Public Access
Most of the Center's holdings have been described through the National Archives Catalog.
Digitized copies of records and born-digital electronic records in the Center's holdings are made available through the National Archives Catalog, but please note that the vast majority of the Center's holdings are textual records that have not been digitized.
The Center also features various digitized documents through our Featured Documents section.
Citing the Records of Congress
Visit our page on Citing the Records of Congress, and for more guidance visit Chapter 1 of the House and Senate Guides, which includes a section on Citing Unpublished Congressional Documents.
Ready to start your research?
Visit our Research Portal to browse and search legislative records. Email us at legislative.archives@nara.gov with any questions.