Resources for research

From ENHLDWiki

Potential sources for information

Some suggestions:

• Sanborn fire insurance maps - hard copies in the Archives are pre-1923 and not subject to copyright. The online ones are copyrighted.
• National Historic Landmark District nomination forms - public domain. At Archives.
• Montana Historical Society National Register plaques - public domain. Pat Mohan has copies of all of them for Butte.
• Historical photos - Butte Archives, Montana Historical Society, World Museum of Mining. Since we are now unfunded, be sure to consider the fact that there are usually costs associated with using these images, and there may also be copyright restrictions.
• Google Earth - this imagery is copyrighted. We can certainly use images (screen shots) for our internal reference and such, but they cannot be used in the final, public product. The goal is to have Google Earth embrace our stuff so that it appears within their products.
• Newspapers - Archives. Both articles and advertisements may be resources.
• Secondary sources - books etc. may especially be useful for information about people, organizations, events, etc. that we may link to property descriptions. Most useful books will be copyrighted, so be careful to use the information, but not the wording (not even moderate paraphrasing), from books. Historic Uptown Butte, 1977, by John DeHaas, Jr., is a good resource for uptown business buildings (including some that are lost). Dick has a copy.
• Original research - Wikipedia does not allow this, but we should consider it in terms of some content, such as descriptions of interior finishings or even more detailed work like measurements and floor plans (the latter will be valuable for the Vernacular Architecture Forum Guidebook). Note that Dick has software to generate floor plans. See the Guide to a Basic Article for tips on how to reference original research.

• Existing references format list