User Guide

 

Welcome to the Pittsburgh City Archives online! When browsing our digital collections, here are some helpful tips to keep in mind:

 

To enter the archive, click the “Browse Digital Archive” button at the top of the page.

 

Searching by keyword:

Enter keywords or phrases in the search bar and click the “Archive” button as shown below. Using quotation marks will help to find an exact match within the search. Searching by keyword will comb through our entire collection and will return all results that include the term within its title, metadata and content.

 

 

Search results can be refined to include specific collections or types of content (for example, text or images). These options appear on the left side of the page:

 

 

Filtering results by date:

To filter results by date, click on the “+Filter” button to the right of the search bar. To narrow the results to items from 1989, for example, enter the first day of the year (January 1) and the last day (December 31). See below:

 

 

 

 

Searching within collections:

After a collection or folder has been selected, an additional search bar will appear with the words “Search within.” Simply enter a subject term or phrase in quotation marks to search within the selected collection or folder.

 

 

 

Searching within a document:

Keywords can be found within specific documents by selecting the magnifying glass icon in the upper left corner of the document. (Note: do not use quotation marks in this search bar.)

 

 

 

 

Additional Research

To request additional archival material and to make research appointments, email us via the Contact tab. Research visits are by appointment only.

To browse our entire catalog, which includes items that may not be digitized, please visit our ArchivesSpace site.