Pesky research questions

Example of Revolutionary War uniforms, from the Library of Congress.

Don’t get me wrong, I love trying to help researchers find the “right” answer. But why do I always find the answer days or even weeks after the question was asked? Several weeks ago now, I had a woman here doing background research for a novel she is writing. Among other things, she asked me what men would have worn in the army during the Revolution. Fortunately I was able to find breeches of the period in our collection using E-Museum to provide part of the answer (without just blurting out what I surmised based on years of soaking up history and costumes. I am an archivist, remember, not a curator?).