What materials are available on this site?
All the materials hosted on the CISDRC are primary sources, meaning that they were created around the time that the school was in operation. The sources have been gathered from a number of different historical institutions and are organized into five categories: Student Records, Images, Publications, Documents, and Lists and Ledgers. You can navigate to each category by clicking on its title in the navigation bar on the left side of the screen.
On the landing page for each category, you will find an overview of the information available. You can search by name or keyword for materials in that specific category using the search bar on the right side of that landing page, or you can browse the resources by scrolling down.
Student Records include material compiled by school administrators about an individual student while the school was open. Depending on the student and how the school staff had filed their papers, they may have up to four different record posts in this category, including a student file, two different information cards, and a progress card. Sometimes a student has only a single information card remaining; other times they have a student file which contains letters, forms, and news clippings. School staff saved these files primarily as a way to keep in touch with former students through an alumni network. If notified that a former student had died, school staff members typically discarded file material except for the information cards.
For information about common types of documents found in student files, see our document guide.
Images include photographs, postcards, and reproductions of images (like in a newspaper clipping or magazine). All of these images relate to Carlisle students, staff, or the physical campus. Photographs dating from the first 20 years of the school are more numerous than those dating from the latter 20 years. There are many photos featuring individuals who are unidentified, so if visitors to the site recognize a person, they are encouraged to click the “submit corrections” button near the bottom of the post to assist with attaching names to faces.
Publications include the school newspapers and magazines – 12 different titles altogether – that were printed by the students at the school from 1880 to 1918. Not every issue ever printed is available yet, with gaps among early issues of the Indian Helper (1885-1888) and later years of the Carlisle Arrow (1916-18). This category also includes catalogs, yearbooks, and calendars from a few years, copies of annual reports of the school, promotional pamphlets, a few books and articles, and other printed material related to the school.
Documents primarily includes letters and standardized forms exchanged between the school's administration and the Indian Affairs offices in Washington, DC. These letters and forms provide a lot of detail about school operations. Also found within this category are letters from parents inquiring about their children at the school, and even some letters from former students.
Lists and Ledgers cover any bound volumes that Carlisle staff used to track information about the activities of the students or staff. Topics include enrollment, financial affairs (including student savings accounts), the outing system, and others. (To see what ledgers cover what periods, see Researching an Individual Student.
There is no series of ledgers for any one topic that covers the entire history of the school. As an example, while there are admissions ledgers for nearly 30 years of the school’s operations, the first 10 years of admissions information needs to be drawn from other sources. In similar fashion, there is detailed information about spending at the school for the first 20 years of operation, but then there is a gap over the next 8 years before the finance ledgers resume and detail the rest of the school’s history.
In addition to these five categories of primary source material, CISDRC staff have compiled information about the school cemetery and the students buried there who died while in attendance. There is also a collection of teaching resources, which include a variety of lesson plans that can be adapted for use by different classes and age groups. Finally, there are pointers to additional resources related to the Carlisle Indian School hosted in other locations.
How do I start my research?
For more information on features of the website or suggestions for how to find everything related to an individual student, please see Navigation Tools.
Where can I find information on my ancestor/a specific student?
For more information see the Researching an Individual Student help page.
Where can I find information on the students from a specific tribal community?
The best way to find material related to those who all came from the same Native nation/tribal community is to look at that Nation’s tag. If you find one of the posts that mentions someone from that community (like a student information card), you can click on the tag under “Nation.” Then all related student files will appear in one list.
Why can I not find the person I am looking for?
A student’s preferred form of name was not necessarily the form used by the school which leads to variations in spelling on the documents. The CISDRC has tried to account for these variations so that if you search with any one of those names, you will reach the correct student records. But we only know the names for which we have a corresponding document. If your initial search is unsuccessful, try to use the sort function on the Student Records page to narrow down the results by the date or tribal affiliation.
You can also look at the help page on Troubleshooting the Search. Or simply email us with your question.