Search Help

How does this work?
There are many ways to search the collections of the Freedom Archives. Below is a brief guide that will help you conduct effective searches. Note, anytime you search for anything in the Freedom Archives, the first results that appear will be our digitized items. Information for items that have yet to be scanned or yet to be digitized can still be viewed, but only by clicking on the show link that will display the hidden (non-digitized) items. If you are interested in accessing these non-digitized materials, please email info@freedomarchives.org.
Exploring the Collections without the Search Bar
Under the heading Browse By Collection, you’ll notice most of the Freedom Archives’ major collections. These collections have an image as well as a short description of what you’ll find in that collection. Click on that image to instantly explore that specific collection.
Basic Searching
You can always type what you’re looking for into the search bar. Certain searches may generate hundreds of results, so sometimes it will help to use quotation marks to help narrow down your results. For instance, searching for the phrase Black Liberation will generate all of our holdings that contain the words Black and Liberation, while searching for “Black Liberation” (in quotation marks) will only generate our records that have those two words next to each other.
Advanced Searching
The Freedom Archives search site also understands Boolean search logic. Click on this link for a brief tutorial on how to use Boolean search logic. Our search function also understands “fuzzy searches.” Fuzzy searches utilize the (*) and will find matches even when users misspell words or enter in only partial words for the search. For example, searching for liber* will produce results for liberation/liberate/liberates/etc.
Keyword Searches
You’ll notice that under the heading KEYWORDS, there are a number of words, phrases or names that describe content. Sometimes these are also called “tags.” Clicking on these words is essentially the same as conducting a basic search.

Search Results

Paul Robeson raw materials Paul Robeson raw materials
Call Number: CD 296Format: CDCollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
Robeson raw materials: 1: sings Prayer and Death (Boris Gudonov, Mussorgsky opera); 2: Sid Roger interview from 1955; Robeson speaks about the role of the UN in the struggle for peace, the denial of his passport and his struggle for his right to travel, his varied musical repertoire; 3: speaks at the convention of the Marine Cooks & Stewards Union and sings Joe Hill; 4: Sid Roger from 1955 continued; Robeson speaks about the government’s attack on Harry Bridges and the ILWU Same as PR 059
Interface: A Profile of Paul Robeson Interface: A Profile of Paul Robeson
Date: 1/1/1975Call Number: V 064Format: 1/2 Video reelProducers: WETA - Tony BattenCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
Covers Paul Robeson's film career with extensive film clips leading to his struggles politically and interviews with him about passport denial and other attacks by the US government.
Interface: A Profile of Paul Robeson - Part 1 Interface: A Profile of Paul Robeson - Part 1
Date: 1/1/1975Call Number: V 323Format: Mini DVProducers: WETA - Tony BattenCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
Covers Paul Robeson's film career with extensive film clips leading to his struggles politically and interviews with him about passport denial and other attacks by the US government.
Interface: A Profile of Paul Robeson - Part 2 Interface: A Profile of Paul Robeson - Part 2
Date: 1/1/1975Call Number: V 324Format: Mini DVProducers: WETA - Tony BattenCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
Covers Paul Robeson's film career with extensive film clips leading to his struggles politically and interviews with him about passport denial and other attacks by the US government.