Tips for Searching and Navigating the Website
All content from the previous site has been successfully migrated. However, since the site structure had remained virtually unchanged for 24 years, long-time visitors may need some time to adjust to the updated presentation of materials.
Adapting to any new technology brings both excitement and challenges. As you explore the new site and spend time on it, you’ll become familiar with its enhanced organization and streamlined, user-friendly tools. We hope you’ll find that the collection is presented in a more modern and intuitive way.
If you have questions or need help, you can reach out to [email protected]. If you want to reference a specific page, please provide the link.
This quick video provides an overview of the new website to assist with navigating and searching.
Changes to Terminology
The terminology has been updated from the previous site. The In-depth “Galleries” have become “Digital Exhibitions”, with “Spotlights” as one-page stories formerly called “Exhibits”, and we’ve added a new feature called “Tributes” to highlight individuals.
Searching the Site
The About navigation bar at the top of the site and the Support section are available for searching for general areas unrelated to the museum’s collection.
To search the collection, use one or more of the options below. The first two options address the collection’s main content, while the third focuses on the timeline.
- Digital Archive Search – An extensive collection of SEC historical papers, oral histories, news releases, speeches, recorded conversations, and photographs.
- Exhibition and Spotlight & Tribute Search – In-depth Exhibitions, short-form Spotlights, and Tributes honoring notable individuals.
- Timeline Search – Timelines highlight significant developments in the history of securities regulation against U.S. and world events, plus a list of past SEC Chairs and Commissioners.
Search Tips for the Digital Archive
The Digital Archive search uses all selected terms and filters together. So each result must match every selected word, year, category, and media format. If you do not find what you are looking for, we encourage you to broaden the search by removing a word, clearing a filter, or selecting fewer options. You can also expand your search by moving to the exhibitions, spotlights, tributes, or timelines search tabs.
PDFs and Optical Character Recognition Technology (OCR)
The biggest change is that each archive item is now its own searchable page, with over 10,000 PDFs made searchable via OCR, plus additional filters like year and media format to narrow results.
To search within a PDF, click the magnifying glass icon or press Ctrl+F (Windows) or Cmd+F (Mac) to open the Find tool. Enter the keyword in the search box to highlight and jump directly to text matches.
Oral History Section
Each oral history now has detailed pages with downloadable transcripts and synopses. Additionally, with the OCR reference above enabled, when you search for, for example, Arthur Levitt in the oral history, you will now find not only Chairman Levitt’s oral history but also all the people who mention him in their oral histories, which really expands the scope of your search.
General Tips
To return to a website’s homepage, click the site’s logo in the top left corner.
We will continue to add to this as we receive feedback during the site’s soft launch phase.