The Vault at Pfaff's contains an expanding bibliographic database of works by and about the Pfaff's bohemians, including both nineteenth-century sources and relevant twentieth-century scholarship. When available, electronic versions of these works are provided either in a CONTENTdm viewer hosted by The Vault at Pfaff's or through an external link to a source elsewhere on the World Wide Web.

Many of the works included in this database are accompanied by annotations designed to highlight the relevance of the work and to facilitate further research. When applicable, works in the database may include (1) a general abstract describing the content of the work itself, (2) a list of the Pfaffians mentioned in the work (accompanied by details about those individuals given in the work), and (3) an annotated list of related works. These annotations have been provided as a way to draw connections between the Pfaff's bohemians and the works that they produced, and in so doing to demonstrate how the members of this literary-artistic movement influenced one another's lives and careers. (This annotation process is ongoing as of the initial launch of The Vault at Pfaff's in September of 2006.)

The search engine for this bibliographic database allows visitors to The Vault at Pfaff's to locate works by and about specific Pfaffians, and to limit their search according to the type, genre, and date of publication of the work. Visitors to the site are also able to search for specific keywords in the titles and abstracts of works, as well as other portions of the bibliographic entry. The search engine also allows visitors to the site to focus their search on works published in The Saturday Press.

Searching Tips

• To search for a work published in The Saturday Press, choose "Saturday Press" from the Limit to menu.
• To locate works by a specific Pfaffian, choose the name of that individual in the Author menu. To locate works about a specific Pfaffian, choose the name of that individual in the Person Mentioned menu. Choosing "Any Pfaffian" in the Author menu will generate a list of all the works in the database created by the Pfaff's bohemians. Similarly, choosing "Any Pfaffian" in the Person Mentioned menu will generate a list of all the works in the database that mention one or more of the Pfaff's bohemians. Leaving the Author menu blank (i.e., choosing "No Pfaffian Selected") will search for works in the database by both Pfaffians and non-Pfaffians alike. Leaving the Person Mentioned menu blank (i.e., choosing "No Pfaffian Selected") will generate a list of records that includes works where the Pfaffians are mentioned as well as works where they are not.
• To locate a work where a specific Pfaffian mentions another Pfaffian, choose the names of those individuals in the appropriate Author and Person Mentioned menus. For example, to find out whether Rose Eytinge had anything to say about Ada Clare, choose "Eytinge, Rose" in the Author menu and "Clare, Ada" in the Person Mentioned menu. Similarly, to find out what any of the Pfaffians had to say about Clare, enter "Any Pfaffian" in the Author menu and "Clare, Ada" in the Person Mentioned menu. Conversely, to find out what Rose Eytinge had to say about any of the other Pfaffians, choose "Eytinge, Rose" in the Author menu and "Any Pfaffian" in the Person Mentioned menu.
• Any single word or combination of words entered into the Keywords box will be searched for in the author, title, abstract, and publication fields of the bibliographic record if the "In Any Field" option is chosen. To limit a keyword search to any one specific field (either author, title, abstract, or publication information), that field should be chosen from the menu to the far right of the Keywords box. For example, to search for the word "bohemian" in only the titles of works on the database, enter "bohemian" into the Keywords box and choose "In Title" from this menu.
• To find a work in the database that is not written by one of the Pfaff's bohemians (e.g., a twentieth-century scholar who wrote about the Pfaffians or a nineteenth-century contemporary who commented on the Pfaff's scene but was not him- or herself a part of it), enter the name of the author in question into the Keywords box and choose "In Author" from the menu to the far right of the box.
• When multiple terms are entered into the Keywords box, users have the option to search for works where all of those terms appear in the record (by choosing "All Terms"), where one or more of those terms appear in the record (by choosing "Any Term"), or where all of those terms appear in the exact order they are entered into the Keywords box (by choosing "Exact Phrase"). For example, entering the phrase "Fred Gray Association" into the Keywords box and choosing "All Terms" will produce records where all three of the terms "Fred," "Gray," and "Association" appear in some form. Entering the same phrase and choosing "Any Term" will produce records with the term "Fred," records with the term "Gray," and records with the term "Association." Choosing "Exact Phrase" will produce records where the phrase "Fred Gray Association" appears.
• Adding an asterisk (*) after a word entered into the Keywords box will search for variants of that word (e.g., press* will search for pressing, pressed, pressure, etc.).
• Any search can be limited by a combination of the following factors: the Type of the work (defined as the medium where the work appeared, e.g., artwork, book, magazine, etc.), the Genre of the work (defined as what the work is, e.g., painting, illustration, novel, short fiction, poetry, journalism, etc.), and the Date when the work appeared. These limiting factors can be selected from the three menus labeled Limit to.
• Visitors to the site who choose to limit their search according to a specific date from the Limit to menu will notice that the date range has been restricted to three periods that have been defined as follows: (1) any date before 1866, which is the year when The Saturday Press ended publication and the bohemian movement all but ceased to exist; (2) dates between 1867-1928, with 1928 being the year when the last of the Pfaffians died; and (3) any date since 1929. These three periods correspond with the heyday of the Pfaff's scene, the era of nostalgia when the former Pfaffians reflected on their time as bohemians, and the current period of scholarly analysis about Pfaff's, respectively.
• If a search turns up fewer results than expected, make sure that there are no undesired limitations set for the search. Pressing the Clear All button before beginning a new search ensures that only the desired data has been entered.