My literature review draft is due Friday and I'm unsure how to format Chicago citations for archival sources?

The short answer is that in Chicago author‑date you treat an unpublished manuscript or a letter much like a book chapter: give the author’s name, year of creation (or “n.d.” if there’s no date), a brief description of the item, the collection title, the repository, and the box or folder numbers, then end with a parenthetical citation that includes the author, year, and page or folio if you’re quoting. In the reference list you expand that same information, italicizing the collection title and using “manuscript” or “letter” as the medium indicator. When you work through a stack of correspondence in the special collections reading room, start by noting the creator’s full name and the exact date on the envelope or heading; if the letter is undated, you can approximate the year and add “circa.” Then write something like: Doe, Jane. 1923. Letter to John Smith, March 5, 1923. John Smith Papers, Box 3, Folder 12, University Archive. In the text you’d cite (Doe 1923, 45) if you’re referring to page 45 of the letter, or just (Doe 1923) for a general reference. In the bibliography the entry would look like: Doe, Jane. 1923. Letter to John Smith, March 5. John Smith Papers, Box 3, Folder 12 (University Archive). If you’re dealing with a manuscript that never saw publication, replace “Letter to…” with the manuscript title in quotation marks, add “manuscript” after the title, and follow the same pattern. A practical way to keep things straight is to create a simple spreadsheet as you scan each item, entering the author, date, description, collection, and location fields; that way you can copy‑paste directly into your reference list and avoid missing details. It also helps to draft a few sample citations and compare them side‑by‑side with the Chicago author‑date guidelines, adjusting the punctuation until the pattern feels consistent. Finally, before you submit, run a quick check that every in‑text citation has a matching bibliography entry and that the years line up, which will save you a last‑minute scramble. This approach should get your literature review formatted correctly and let you focus on the content.