01
Identify the Record
Record the title, creator, office, date, document number, revision, copy number, subject, addressee, distribution, and apparent record type before interpreting its contents.
Archival Research Guide
How to Read a Nuclear Archive
Read the document as an artifact before reading it as evidence. Nuclear records carry clues in their format, routing, numbering, markings, attachments, omissions, and archival context—not only in the words on the page.
Artifact → Provenance → Administrative Context → Evidence → Limits → Next Record
Start with the object
Before asking what it says, ask what it is.
A memorandum, inspection report, drawing, shipping form, health-physics log, contract modification, routing slip, retrospective history, and database compilation were created for different purposes. Their evidentiary value depends partly on understanding those purposes.
02
Establish Provenance
Determine who created the record, why it was created, where it survives, whether it is an original, copy, scan, extract, compilation, or later reproduction, and how it entered the archive.
03
Read the Markings
Notice classification and declassification markings, redactions, distribution controls, stamps, accession numbers, routing notations, handwritten annotations, enclosures, and later archival markings. Do not assume a public copy was formally declassified unless the record supports that conclusion.
04
Decode the Numbering
Document numbers, contract numbers, drawing numbers, purchase orders, shipment identifiers, report series, box/folder citations, accession numbers, and database identifiers can reconnect a single page to a much larger record system.
Use the Codewords & Terminology Decoder →05
Follow the References
Look for attachments, earlier memoranda, referenced reports, drawings, meeting minutes, correspondence, forms, distribution lists, and subsequent corrective actions. A document often points directly to the next record Rosetta should recover.
06
Separate Evidence from Inference
Record what the source directly establishes, what it supports only indirectly, what remains unresolved, and what it does not establish. Apply the same discipline to names, dates, materials, tasks, workers, monitoring, shipments, and exposure claims.
Read the Evidence Status Key →07
Look for the Missing Record
Gaps can be visible inside surviving records: a missing enclosure, absent roster, referenced survey, unlocated shipment form, superseded procedure, or unexplained break in a numbered series. Document the gap without treating it as proof of what the missing record contained.
Explore the Missing Archive →08
Preserve the Citation Trail
Capture enough information for another researcher to locate the same evidence: creator, title, date, page, document identifier, repository or database, collection/series, box/folder where available, and a stable public link when one exists.
See Rosetta citation guidance →A nuclear record is part of a system
Read outward from the page.
Administrative records were produced by organizations, programs, contracts, facilities, offices, and recordkeeping systems. Understanding that structure can reveal the records that should precede or follow the document in hand.
Ask: Who needed this information? Who received it? What form or procedure generated it? What attachment should accompany it? What office retained the record copy? What later action should have produced another record?
Rosetta archival questions
Six questions to ask every time
Who created it?
Why was it created?
What does it directly establish?
What does it not establish?
What other records does it identify or imply?
Where does it fit in the larger documentary system?
Common record families
Learn to recognize the documentary ecosystem.
Contracts & Procurement
Contracts, modifications, purchase orders, specifications, invoices, vendor correspondence, acceptance records, and subcontract files can establish organizational relationships while leaving the actual work scope to other records.
Contracts & Contractors →Shipments & Accountability
Shipping forms, bills of lading, transfer records, receiving reports, material-balance records, surveys, and accountability forms can reconstruct movement without automatically establishing worker exposure.
Shipments & Connections →Health Physics & Monitoring
Bioassay, dosimetry, air sampling, contamination surveys, work permits, instrument logs, procedures, and summary reports must be read for population coverage, frequency, sensitivity, exceptions, and representativeness.
Occupational History →Occurrences & Investigations
Initial notifications, occurrence reports, investigation files, photographs, monitoring data, corrective actions, and follow-up correspondence may describe different stages of the same event and should not be collapsed into a single account.
Occurrences, Incidents & Accidents →Reading Room companion
Practice on real historical records.
The Declassified Document Reading Room will provide curated documents with provenance and Rosetta context. This guide supplies the method for examining them critically.
Enter the Reading Room →Core principle
The archive does not interpret itself.
A surviving document may be accurate, incomplete, administrative, retrospective, contradictory, or written for a narrow purpose. Rosetta preserves both what the record can establish and the limits on what may reasonably be concluded from it.