There is a collection-level record for each special collection in the Department, which supplies its main entry, range of dates, scope and contents, arrangement, and various subject and form access terms. The existence of departmental finding aids (reference tools specific to each collection) is noted; they can be accessed directly from the URL element given in the record. The Master List of finding aids for all departmental finding aids can be found at this address:
Most of the records, however, are indexing records that locate specific "author" material within those collections: for example, letters by Ernest Hemingway in box 49 of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Papers. In addition, author records contain brief identification and biographical information about the indexed "authors", or creators, of the material being described.
The database does not yet hold records for all of the Department's collections, nor have we indexed all the collections in the database. If upon searching MASC you are not successful in locating what you want or have questions about the database, please contact us.
Reference questions about the records should be addressed to Margaret Sherry (mmsherry@princeton.edu, 609-258-3174), the Department's reference archivist. Refer database questions to John Delaney (delaney@princeton.edu, 609-258-3166).