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Pinkerton's National Detective Agency Records in the Manuscript Division

Access the Collection

Attention: All researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site, or may have access restrictions, and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use. Researchers interested in consulting any of the division's collections are strongly encouraged to write the Manuscript Reading Room via the Ask a Librarian form or email at [email protected] to inquire about the status of collections of interest.

The Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress is the custodian of Pinkerton's National Detective Agency Records. Researchers can access the collection in the Manuscript Reading Room. For those unable to visit us in person, portions of the collection may be accessed offsite through other means. The below information provides details about these access options.

Accessing the Collection at the Library of Congress

Researchers should first consult the finding aid, which describes the collection's contents and arrangement. The finding aid is not indexed at the level of individual items, but it does provide a good overview of what is, and is not, contained within the collection.

It is important to remember that the branch office files are not included in the Pinkerton's National Detective Agency records, and that many papers burned when the agency's headquarters was destroyed in the Chicago fire of 1871. The records at the Library of Congress primarily reflect activity in the New York and Chicago offices, and are often limited to the more famous cases.

Accessing the Collection from Offsite

The Library of Congress has produced a microfilm edition of the letterpress copybooks and reports in containers 44-48 (reels 1-3, acc. 16,574) of the Pinkerton's National Detective Agency Records, and these may be available to you through interlibrary loan. You can initiate an interlibrary loan request through a local public or academic library that has a loan agreement with the Library of Congress.

A private company microfilmed selections from the Administrative Files and Criminal Case Files series. Select guides to this microfilm edition are accessible online (see below). The Manuscript Division does not loan this film, but it may also be accessible to you via interlibrary loan from another institution.

Within individual folders, all materials were filmed with the exception of copyrighted items and exact duplicates. In order to comply with Library of Congress regulations, fragile items and bound volumes were not filmed. In addition, oversize items and documents previously microfilmed by the Library of Congress were not filmed.

Portions of the collection have been digitized by ProQuest and are available through the ProQuest subscription database History Vault. You may wish to consult your local librarian regarding access to this database.

Subscription database Gale Primary Sources has made available online Pinkerton's National Detective Agency Records, 1853-1999, Letterpress Books and Miscellaneous Reports.