While you have become accustomed to using books, articles, and other secondary and tertiary sources for your research assignments, professional researchers also study primary sources located in archives, museums, special collections, and other cultural repositories. Today, you will have an opportunity to learn more about the Indian Uprising of 1857-58 through primary source documents. In addition to viewing digitized materials, you will also learn how to search for resources held by cultural repositories around the world.
Before you start searching for primary resources, take a minute to review an overview article regarding the topic. When you are searching for materials, keep in mind this event was also called the Sepoy Rebellion, the Indian Mutiny, the Indian Rebellion, the Great Rebellion, the Revolt of 1857, the Indian Insurrection, and India's First War of Independence. For this assignment, your group will be responsible for finding accounts of the Indian Uprising from a particular perspective, including accounts from a:
It is not uncommon that early career researchers will not be aware of the cultural repositories that contain useful resources in their research area. With so many resources spread across cultural repositories around the world, it is impossible for even the most seasoned researcher to know where all of the primary resources on his/her topic are located. In order to help researchers, information professionals have started to create systems that can search across institutions to find useful primary sources. In this section of the assignment, you will use one of these systems, ArchivesGrid, to discover collections related to your topic.
While ArchivesGrid is helpful in identifying cultural repositories that have useful resources on your topic, it only represents a small portion of what is available. Another approach is to consider the cultural repositories that might cover your topic. In the case of the Sepoy Rebellion, the National Archives of the United Kingdom would likely collect manuscripts associated with the British military and civil service in India. In this part of the exercise, you will search the catalog of the National Archives.