September 17, 1998
Contact:
Press Contact: Guy Lamolinara (202) 707-9217
On-Line Collection of George Washington Papers Expands
New items, including important documents relating to
the Revolutionary War, have been added to the Library's on-
line collections of the George Washington Papers. The
materials are part of the American Memory Collections,
available at www.loc.gov/.
The second release of the Washington papers includes
approximately 23,000 images and texts. The complete George
Washington Papers, held in the Library's Manuscript
Division, consist of some 65,000 documents. Ninety-five
percent of extant Washington documents are at the Library of
Congress. Document types in the collection include
correspondence, letterbooks, commonplace books, diaries,
journals, financial account books, military records, reports
and notes accumulated by Washington from 1741 through 1799.
The collection is organized into eight series or groupings.
The collection is being presented in successive
releases. This second release comprises Series 3 and Series
5. Series 3 includes 44 letterbooks from the Revolutionary
War period, 1775-1783, and Series 5 consists of 34 volumes
of financial papers, 1750-1796. The first release, Series 2
in February 1998, included 41 letterbooks, dating from 1774
through 1799.
This project is funded by Reuters America Inc. and the
Reuter Foundation.
The approximately 65,000 items in the George Washington
Papers in the Library's Manuscript Division reflect
Washington's careers as surveyor, plantation owner, military
commander in the service of and in revolt against the
British government and practical politician. His
correspondence, account books and military papers are the
preeminent sources for military aspects of the French and
Indian wars and the American Revolution. Washington's
correspondence, diaries, journals and meticulously
maintained records of federal appointment applications are
unparalleled reservoirs of information on the United States
Constitution and the creation of the national government.
These collections of the papers of Washington and 22 other
presidents are the core of the Library of Congress's
unequaled sources for the study of the founding of the
American nation and its national government.
American Memory is a project of the National Digital
Library Program, which, in collaboration with other
institutions, will make available on-line the most important
American history materials of the Library and other major
repositories. More than 40 collections are now available,
including the recent addition of many never-before-seen
photographs in "America from the Great Depression to World
War II: Photos from the Farm Security Administration/Office
of War Information, 1935-1945."
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PR 98-147
9/17/98
ISSN 0731-3527