News You Can Use: Leveraging Local Media to Advance Academic Research
A good source is hard to find. Sometimes researchers have to think outside the box of archival material and search beyond the academy for the information they need. Ryan Booth did just that when he looked to local media to help fill in some blanks in his source base. Booth, a Ph.D. candidate in history working with Dr. Peter Boag, is completing a dissertation focused on the U.S. Indian Scouts from 1866-1942. When his research took him to Fort Keogh in Miles City, Montana, he reached out not only to archivists but reporters and editors to raise awareness of his work and cast a line to anyone who might be in possession of previously unseen primary sources. The result was an article published January 7, 2019 in the Billings Gazette , but working with the writers of the first draft of history is different than approaching professional academics. Booth's efforts yielded some unexpected lessons and leads well worth repeating for other scholars. Below is an email exchange between Bo...