Do You Always Get to the Bottom?

Are you maximizing all the clues in a record or item you have discovered? The dog in the picture rarely lets one drop remain in her “pup cup” of ice cream she gets. Analyzing a document as quickly as Winnie eats her treat is not advised–it’s best to let information set and give yourself some time to contemplate it completely.

She moves the cup around, changes her own position, shoves her head in to get a different angle on things, etc. in her attempt to clean out the cup. That’s good advice for our research. Look at the document in different contexts–historical time frame, other records in the same series, purpose of the individual record, who gets included in the records, etc. Rotating the image isn’t necessary but your perspective may sometimes need to be figuratively rotated.