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Researching Personal Narratives at NYPL: Summary

Finding first-person accounts for historical research.

Summary

"Personal narrative" is a literary form that describes a first-person account of a certain time and place in history. These resources convey the past experiences of individuals and communities, particularly populations historically misrepresented or absent from traditional records. But identifying and accessing such texts can be difficult. This new research guide published by the Milstein Division of U.S. History, Local History, and Genealogy, aims to ease researchers into accurately and productively navigating NYPL collections, and provides examples, recommendations, and strategies for obtaining a comprehensive sense of the extensive range of first person historical accounts available at NYPL.