Search Help

Search boxes on the home page and advanced search page

    1. Use Boolean logic by linking search terms with AND, OR or NOT.
      Examples:
      Amish AND education
      education OR school
      school AND NOT education
    2. Use quotation marks to search using phrases.
      Examples:
      "Old Order Mennonite"
      "Mennonite Brethren in Christ" OR "Missionary church"
    3. Combine Boolean elements for more complex searches.
      Examples:
      Amish AND (education OR school)
      ("Mennonite Brethren in Christ" OR "Missionary church") AND education

      Once you perform a search, you will usually be shown options to narrow your search.

Browse by

The "Browse by" menu on the home page allows you to search for images in several ways:

    1. Descriptions shows all archival photograph descriptions
    2. Names shows names of people and organizations listed in the archival photograph descriptions
    3. Subjects shows the list of subjects assigned to the photographs
    4. Places shows the list of places assigned to the photographs
    5. Images shows all archival photographs by thumbnail image

Once you click on a "browse by" link, you will usually be shown options to narrow your search.

Typeahead feature

As you enter text into the home page search box, one or more possible matches are found and presented in a drop-down menu which continues to narrow as you enter further text. This allows you to select a search term without necessarily having to enter the full term yourself. Typeahead results are organized into the categories of:  descriptions, institutions, names, places, and subjects. The drop-down includes an option to view all records for a particular record type. Clicking the “View all” link for a particular type of record will redirect you to a browse page of results.

Search by date

Searching by date in MAID is rudimentary, but possible. Dates are entered into MAID by the year of the photograph's creation if the certain year is known, or by a range of years if the date is uncertain.

  1. To search for a photograph created in a certain year, enter the following code into the search box. Substitute "1930" for the year you are searching for:
    dates.i18n.en.date:1930
  2. To search for a photograph for which the year is uncertain but the decade is certain, enter the following code into the search box. Substitute "1930" for the decade you are searching for:
    dates.startDateString:1930

Additional search help

The AtoM manual includes a detailed explanation of the database's search features.