Boston Public Library
Microtext Department

1st Floor, McKim Building, Central Library
617-859-2018

About the Microtext Department

The Microtext Department holds the major part of the Boston Public Library's holdings of microfilm, microfiche, and microprint. The Department's holdings include roughly 163,000 rolls of microfilm, 2.5 million microfiche, and 6,345 boxes of microprint.

The Microtext Department is located on the western side of the street floor of the McKim Building. The Newspaper Room, across the Northwest Corridor in the McKim Building, is a part of the Microtext Department.

The Department's holdings are based on format. The subject areas covered by the Department overlap the coverage of other departments. The Department's holdings complement and supplement the holdings of the subject-based departments.

Among the Department's holdings are:

• biographical dictionaries
• business and trade directories
• census population schedules for New England
• ERIC
• genealogy and local history
• immigration passenger lists
• newspapers, with a concentration on Massachusetts newspapers
• presidential papers
• regimental histories of the American Civil War
• retrospective collections of American, British and Canadian publications
• Sanborn Fire Insurance Atlases
• United States city directories
• compiled collections of:
  • black history
  • civil war
  • historic disasters
  • presidential assassinations
  • history of photography
  • labor history
  • women's history
  • other subjects

About the Obituary Database

The Obituary Database is a running file of full-length obituaries that appeared in the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald. Currently, this database includes obituaries published between 1971 and 1974, and obituaries published from 1983 to  the present*. (*There may be a six-month to one year delay in entering current obituaries.)

If you cannot find who you are looking for in the Obituary Database, there could be several possibilities:

1. The person did not have a full length obituary. Most of the deceased have only death notices, which are not part of this database.
2. The date may not have been entered into the database (dates included: 1971-74; 1990-1997). To find an obituary for dates not covered in this database, consult the obituary card file at the rear of the Microtext Reading Room at the Boston Public Library.

If you have any problems, feel free to consult a member of the Microtext Department staff at the Boston Public Library. The phone number is: (617) 536-5400 ext. 2018.