This week, I will explain what exactly historians are up to when they say they are off "doing research." Each day, I will post about one step of the process of visiting an archive, from figuring out which archive to visit, what they have there, what documents you want to look at, how you even get to look at them, and what you do once you're allowed to look at the documents. By the end of the week, my hope is that an accountant or a plumber or an artisanal chocolate maker can understand what exactly fills a scholar's day when they are conducting historical research.