Massachusetts Historical Society | Collection Guides Search

Capitalization

The search is not case-sensitive.

A search for returns the same results as or

Default Phrase Searching

By default, your search query will be interpreted as a phrase, unless it contains "and", "or" or a comma, any of which will break your query into multiple words or phrases.

finds pages containing the phrase "family correspondence".

finds pages containing "family" and "correspondence"

finds either "land" or "deeds" or "property".

is equivalent to the preceeding.

Use quotes around a literal "and" or "or" that appears within a phrase.

Automatic Word Stemming

The search automatically looks for other words having the same root, but different endings. This feature is not perfect, and may produce unexpected results. Consider using the * wildcard character, as described below ("Wildcards").

finds pages containing "root", or "roots", "rooted", etc.

also finds "root", "roots", "rooted", etc.

Use the <word> operator to override the automatic stemming feature in order to find exact spellings of a word.

finds only the exact word "plant", but not "plants", "planted", etc.

finds only the exact word "planting", but not "plant", etc.

Note that <word> must appear before each word to be matched exactly.

will still find the word "ditch".

will only find the exact words "ploughing" or "ditching".

Wildcards

The ? character will match any single letter.

finds pages containing "gray", "grey", etc.

The * character will match zero or more letters, and can be used for truncation.

will find "root", "roots", "rooted", or any other word beginning with "root".

will find "beautifully", "boldly", "briskly", "badly", "biennially", "Beverly", etc.

Limiting the Search to Manuscripts or Photographs

Limit the search to manuscript finding aids or photograph finding aids to narrow the search results by type of collection.

Search in for to find "blake" only when included in a manuscript collection finding aid.

Search in for to find the "blake" only when included in a photograph collection finding aid.

Advanced Searching

The <near> operator can be used to find words within close proximity to one another.

finds pages containing the word "spain" near the word "alliance".