Choose the appropriate button to begin your search. Then either select a name from the quick list or begin typing the name (last, first) of the person you are searching and make a selection from the list that appears. If the name you are searching does not appear in the list, s/he does not appear as an author or recipient in the Adams catalog. To search multiple names, repeat the process for each additional name, but note that search results will yield only those documents that are common to all of the names that were entered.

For additional information on using search tools,
see Search Tips

To limit your search by date, enter the range of dates in the from and to boxes. To search for a document with a single date, use the copy function to enter the date in both fields. For documents written in a single year, leave the month and day blank and use the copy function to enter the year in both fields. For documents written after a particular date, enter a date in the from box only; for documents written before a particular date, enter a date in the to box only.

For additional information on using search tools,
see Search Tips

Keyword searches search only the limited catalog information about the document, not the text of the document itself. To search for phrases, enter the phrases in quotes.

For additional information on using search tools,
see Search Tips

The location field allows you to limit searches to documents concerning a city or place. Begin typing a city or place name to see a list of choices; click one of these to enter it in the search form. Wildcards are used automatically in the dialog box; for example typing 'boston' will show the choices "Boston MA" and "South Boston MA". Note that you may choose only one to enter on the search form; your subsequent search will only return results for that choice. To try a broader choice, you could, in this example, enter 'boston' as a keyword in the 'KEYWORDS' field.

To limit your search to only those documents held by a particular institution, enter the name of the institution and make and select a name from the list that appears as you type.

For additional information on using search tools,
see Search Tips

To search for documents other than correspondence, select from the list of documents and subjects associated with select members of the Adams family. For a list of the names associated with the abbreviations, see the Key to Initials at the top of the page.

For additional information on using search tools,
see Search Tips

Check this box to limit your results to records describing a limited number of documents that are viewable as digital images, transcriptions, or both, at the MHS website.

Check this box to exclude documents with a range of dates that begins before or extends beyond your date range. With the box checked, only documents that fall completely within your specified date range will appear. Otherwise, documents with date spans beginning before your range appear first on the list of results.