The Papers of Thomas Jefferson

Last updated

The Papers of Thomas Jefferson is a multi-volume scholarly edition devoted to the publication of the public and private papers of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. [1] The project, established at Princeton University, is the definitive edition of documents written by or to Jefferson. [1] [2] [3] Work on the series began in 1944 and was undertaken solely at Princeton until 1998, when responsibility for editing documents from Jefferson's post-presidential retirement years, 1809 until 1826, shifted to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello. [3] This enabled work to progress simultaneously on two different periods of Jefferson's life and thereby doubled the production of volumes without compromising the high standards set for the project. [3]

Contents

History

The project grew out of a plan developed in 1943 by Julian P. Boyd, the chief librarian of Princeton University, a scholar of the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, and the historian of the Thomas Jefferson Bicentennial Commission. The Commission tasked Boyd with studying whether or not a comprehensive collection of Jefferson's papers would be feasible. [4] [5] Prior to this less than 20% of Jefferson's papers had been published in any format and what had been published had been highly selective and thinly or poorly annotated. [6]

Boyd, who served as the project's first general editor, intended the finished project to be complete enough to replace what had been previously published and to ensure that the task would not have to be redone in the future. [6] Princeton University agreed to host the editorial project and Princeton University Press also agreed to publish the volumes. Initial funding came from The New York Times Company. Although the United States government, which was in the midst of World War II, could not fund the early phases of the project's work, both President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his successor Harry S. Truman were enthusiastic supporters. [5] The project's first volume was released in 1950 to near universal praise. [7] [8] [9]

As conceived by Boyd, the edition would consist of two series: one chronological and one topical. [6] The chronological series includes letters written by and to Jefferson, as well as other documents such as memoranda, notes, and Jefferson's public addresses. [6] The Papers of Thomas Jefferson cites itself as the "first modern historical documentary edition" and has exerted a strong influence on the presentation and organization of materials for other historical editions. [6] Similar projects have used The Papers of Thomas Jefferson as their model. [6] [10]

Boyd continued to work on the Papers until his death in 1980. [11] Boyd's immediate successor, Charles T. Cullen, introduced computer technology and the systematic indexing of the volumes. During his lifetime of working on The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Boyd created new, higher ideals for historical editing, which his successors Cullen and Catanzariti continued after his death. [12] Subsequent editors have been John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and James P. McClure. [11]

General editors

Retirement Series

In 1998 Princeton University entered into a partnership with the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc., which owns and operates Monticello, Jefferson's primary plantation and the place where he spent much of the remainder of his life. The Foundation assumed responsibility for Jefferson's papers composed between the end of his presidency on 4 March 1809 and his death on 4 July 1826. [3] This new effort, named the Retirement Series, is also published by Princeton University Press in a similar format. [3] Aided by a start-up grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts, work began in 1999 at Monticello under the editorial leadership of historian J. Jefferson Looney. The Retirement Series is expected to be completed in twenty-three annotated volumes. [13]

Jefferson Quotes & Family Letters

In 2004 the Retirement Series launched a second project, Jefferson Quotes & Family Letters, a freely accessible collection of digital correspondence by, to, and between members of Jefferson's extensive family, excluding those to and from Jefferson himself. [14] Ranging beyond Jefferson's life as far as the family's American Civil War experience, this material had not been part of the core Papers volumes and most of it had never been published elsewhere. These letters and other documents give personal insights into aspects of Jefferson's life that he seldom highlighted in his own writings, as well as providing accounts of the early years of the University of Virginia and of domestic, economic, and social life in nineteenth-century Virginia. Jefferson Quotes & Family Letters also features a growing collection of keyword-searchable quotes by and about Thomas Jefferson. The project is currently ongoing and new material is added regularly.

Retirement Series editors

Second Series

The Second Series edition is a collection of Jefferson's texts that are more suitable for topical rather than chronological arrangement. This Second Series of the edition, published by Princeton University Press, consists of commissioned volumes edited by subject specialists. [15]

Volumes published thus far are as follows:

Scope

The project's goal is to create as comprehensive a collection of Jefferson's personal and public papers as possible. [13] [16] Material collected for the project includes papers and letters written by Jefferson throughout the course of his life, both personal and professional. In order to show a complete version of events, the project also includes documents received by Jefferson. When completed, the project will have collected papers spanning from 14 January 1760 to Jefferson's death in 1826. [16]

The published papers are drawn from original manuscripts in repositories, libraries, and private collections from around the world. Collected as photocopies or digital scans, they are then carefully transcribed, verified, annotated, and indexed in order to provide as much context and accessibility as possible. [6]

Design

The design for The Papers of Thomas Jefferson was created by Goudy Award-winning designer P. J. Conkwright of Princeton University Press, and one element of the design was a new Linotype font created for the edition. [17] Called Monticello, the font was based on typefaces from Jefferson's era. In 2003 the English typographer Matthew Carter transformed the font into digital format. [18]

Publications

President Truman at the Library of Congress receiving the first copy of Volume One of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Photograph of President Truman at the Library of Congress, on the occasion of receiving the first copy of Volume One... - NARA - 200196.jpg
President Truman at the Library of Congress receiving the first copy of Volume One of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson.

Volumes for The Papers of Thomas Jefferson are released in print through Princeton University Press for both the pre- and post-1809 Jefferson papers. The first volume was published in 1950. [19] As of January 2015, the Princeton editorial team has produced 41 volumes of work spanning the years between 14 January 1760 to 15 November 1803, with the first volume released in 1950. [2] The Monticello team has completed 12 volumes as of January 2016.

Electronic edition

Beginning in April 2009, the published volumes became part of the University of Virginia Press's American Founding Era digital collection, a fully searchable subscription-based version of the volumes that are available in their entirety through its Rotunda electronic imprint. [20] Updates and new documents are added to this edition at regular intervals and new volumes are added to Rotunda within two years of their print publication.

In June 2013, the electronic edition also became available through the open access platform Founders Online, which is sponsored by the National Archives. Jefferson's complete papers are among the 185,000 documents available to the public through the website, which also provides access to the writings and letters of six other Founding Fathers, including George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton. [21]

Funding

The Papers of Thomas Jefferson has been cited as a successful model of private-public sponsorship by the National Archives. [22] In addition to Princeton University and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc., the project has received support from the New York Times Company Foundation, the Packard Humanities Institute, the Florence Gould Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and other foundations and individuals. The project has been supported and able to continue and grow through the support of the many foundations and individuals. [23] Beginning in the 1960s, the project also received federal support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. [21]

Reception

Critical reception for the project and its released volumes has been positive. [24] [25] [26] American historian David Chesnutt wrote that Boyd's approach to the Jefferson documents was very influential, stating "Modern historical editing dates from the publication of Julian Boyd's first volume of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson in 1950. Although there had been earlier compilations of the papers of famous Americans, his carefully prepared texts of Jefferson's letters and other writings, "warts and all," set a new standard for accuracy and reliability." [27]

American journalist and biographer Jon Meacham also praised the Jefferson Papers, calling it "one of the most formidable and significant scholarly undertakings in American life". [28]

Awards

See also

Further reading

Related Research Articles

James Gairdner was a British historian. He specialised in 15th-century and early Tudor history, and among other tasks edited the Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Leicester Ford</span> American novelist and biographer

Paul Leicester Ford was an American novelist and biographer, born in Brooklyn, the son of Gordon Lester Ford and Emily Fowler Ford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms</span>

The Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms was a Resolution adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 6, 1775, which explains why the Thirteen Colonies had taken up arms in what had become the American Revolutionary War. The Declaration was written by Thomas Jefferson and revised by John Dickinson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Einstein Papers Project</span> Organization in California

The Einstein Papers Project (EPP) produces the historical edition of the writings and correspondence of Albert Einstein. The EPP collects, transcribes, translates, annotates, and publishes materials from Einstein's literary estate and a multitude of other repositories, which hold Einstein-related historical sources. The staff of the project is an international collaborative group of scholars, editors, researchers, and administrators working on the ongoing authoritative edition, The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein (CPAE).

<i>The Collected Works of C. G. Jung</i> Book series compiling the works of Carl Jung

The Collected Worksof C. G. Jung is a book series containing the first collected edition, in English translation, of the major writings of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Navy Records Society</span>

The Navy Records Society was established in 1893 as a scholarly text publication society to publish historical documents relating to the history of the Royal Navy. Professor Sir John Knox Laughton and Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge were the key leaders who organized the society, basing it on the model of earlier organisations such as the Hakluyt Society and the Camden Society. The American naval historian, Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, was one of the first overseas members to join the Navy Records Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Joseph Smith Papers</span> Project to collect and research documents by Joseph Smith

The Joseph Smith Papers is a project researching, collecting, and publishing all manuscripts and documents created by, or under the direction of, Joseph Smith (1805-1844), the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. The documents, which include transcriptions and annotations, have appeared both online and in printed form. The Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sponsors the project; the department's imprint, the Church Historian's Press, publishes the website and the printed volumes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julian P. Boyd</span> American historian

Julian Parks Boyd was an American professor who was Professor of history at Princeton University. He served as president of the American Historical Association in 1964. For his efforts in preserving the site of the Battle of Hastings, he was appointed an honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Washington Papers</span>

The WashingtonPapers, also known as The Papers of George Washington, is a project dedicated to the publication of comprehensive letterpress and digital editions of George and Martha Washington’s papers. Founded at the University of Virginia in 1968 as the Papers of George Washington, the Washington Papers is an expansive project that includes the papers and documents of George Washington as well as of individuals close to him. The Washington Papers aims to place Washington in a larger context and to bring individuals, such as Martha Washington and Washington family members, into sharper focus. The project is currently headed by editor in chief and director Jennifer E. Steenshorne, and is the largest collection of its type. The project is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the Packard Humanities Institute, the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, the University of Virginia, the Florence Gould Foundation, and other private donors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Physical history of the United States Declaration of Independence</span>

The physical history of the United States Declaration of Independence spans from its original drafting in 1776 into the discovery of historical documents in modern time. This includes a number of drafts, handwritten copies, and published broadsides. The Declaration of Independence states that the thirteen colonies were now the "United Colonies" which "are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States"; and were no longer a part of the British Empire.

Frank E. Grizzard Jr., is an American historian, writer, and documentary editor. He was born in 1954 in Emporia, Virginia, graduating from Greensville County High School in 1971. He earned B.A. degrees in history and religious studies from the Virginia Commonwealth University, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history from the University of Virginia. His doctoral dissertation, Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University of Virginia, 1817–1828, consisting of a lengthy narrative and more than 1,750 documents chronicling the construction of Thomas Jefferson's architectural masterpiece, the Academical VillageArchived 24 April 2001 at the Wayback Machine, became the first electronic dissertation to be placed online when it was completed in 1996. The dissertation was tagged in the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) while Grizzard was a fellow at the University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Technologies in the Humanities (IATH).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Early life and career of Thomas Jefferson</span>

Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, was involved in politics from his early adult years. This article covers his early life and career, through his writing the Declaration of Independence, participation in the American Revolutionary War, serving as governor of Virginia, and election and service as Vice-President to President John Adams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Papers of Abraham Lincoln</span>

The Papers of Abraham Lincoln is a documentary editing project dedicated to identifying, imaging, transcribing, annotating, and publishing online all documents written by or to Abraham Lincoln during his lifetime (1809–1865).

The bibliography of Thomas Jefferson refers to published works about Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the United States. Biographical and political accounts for Jefferson now span across three centuries.

The Papers of James Madison project was established in 1956 to collect and publish in a comprehensive letterpress edition the correspondence and other writings of James Madison, the fourth president of the United States.

The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, originally known as the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, is a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation founded in 1923 to purchase and maintain Monticello, the primary plantation of Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States. The Foundation's initial focus was on architectural preservation, with the goal of restoring Monticello as close to its original appearance as possible. It has since grown to include other historic and cultural pursuits and programs such as its Annual Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony. It also publishes and provides a center for scholarship on Jefferson and his era.

The Adams Papers Editorial Project is an ongoing project by historians and documentary editors at Massachusetts Historical Society to organize, transcribe, and publish a wide range of manuscripts, diaries, letterbooks and politically and culturally important letters authored by and received by the family of Founding Father John Adams, his wife Abigail Adams and their family, including John Quincy Adams. Over 27,000 records have been catalogued to date. Administrators of the database also track the location and content of Adams related materials at other scholarly institutions. By virtue of its collaborative nature, the project simultaneously sheds light on the lives of John Adams’ fellow Founding Fathers George Washington, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Papers of Martin Van Buren</span>

The Papers of Martin Van Buren is an ongoing project that is making available to the public all the surviving letters, papers, and other documents from eighth President Martin Van Buren’s lifetime. The project was originally founded in 1969 at Pennsylvania State University, where a microfilm edition of over 14,000 documents was published in 1987. In 2014, Cumberland University relaunched the Papers of Martin Van Buren project with the goal of digitizing the documents and making them freely accessible online.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Dean Jackson</span>

Donald Dean Jackson was an American journalist, historian, and professor of American history involving early America and the Civil War mostly. He was the founding editor of the University of Virginia's George Washington Papers project. Apart from his editing and publishing of those papers, Jackson was also noted for his consulting and editorship in the Lewis and Clark project, gathering and compiling related manuscripts into one comprehensive study. Jackson was also considered an expert historian of the American West and its exploration and authored many books and journals in that area of study.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Founders Online</span> Research website

Founders Online is a research website providing free access to a digitized collection representing the papers of seven of the most influential figures in the founding of the United States. Among the 185,000 documents available through the website's searchable database are the papers of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington. The database also includes correspondence between these Founders and hundreds of other figures. The website is a cooperative venture between the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), the grant-making arm of the National Archives, and The University of Virginia Press.

References

  1. 1 2 Hawgood, John A. (1955-01-01). "The Papers of Thomas Jefferson". History. 40 (140): 273–285. doi:10.1111/j.1468-229X.1955.tb00306.x. JSTOR   24403114.
  2. 1 2 "Founders Online: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson". National Archives. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Cogliano, Francis D. (2008-01-01). Thomas Jefferson: Reputation and Legacy. University of Virginia Press. p. 94. ISBN   9780813927336.
  4. ↑ "J. Jefferson Looney seeks to decipher Thomas Jefferson's writings". Washington Post. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  5. 1 2 Cogliano (editor), Francis; Oberg, Barbara B.; McClure, James P. (2012). "'For Generations to Come': Creating the 'Definitive' Jefferson Edition". A Companion to Thomas Jefferson. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 194–509. ISBN   978-1444330151.{{cite book}}: |last1= has generic name (help)
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "History and Purpose". The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  7. ↑ Shera, Jesse H. (1950-01-01). "Reviewed Work: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1, 1760-1776 by Thomas Jefferson, Julian P. Boyd, Lyman H. Butterfield, Mina R. Bryan". Minnesota History. 31 (3): 179–180. JSTOR   20175548.
  8. ↑ Davis, Richard Beale (1951-01-01). "Reviewed Works: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Volume 1, 1760-1776 by Julian P. Boyd, Lyman H. Butterfield, Mina R. Bryan; The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Volume 2,January 1777 to June 1779. by Julian P. Boyd, Lyman H. Butterfield, Mina R. Bryan". Modern Language Notes. 66 (6): 412–414. doi:10.2307/2909502. JSTOR   2909502.
  9. ↑ Wiltse, Charles M. (1950-01-01). "Reviewed Work: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson; Volume I, 1760-1776 by Thomas Jefferson, Julian P. Boyd". The American Political Science Review. 44 (3): 753–755. doi:10.2307/1950815. JSTOR   1950815. S2CID   147315749.
  10. ↑ "An Uncommon Awareness of Self: The Papers of George Washington". The Papers of George Washington. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  11. 1 2 "Who are the editors who have worked on the project?". The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  12. ↑ McClure, James (2017). The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. vx. ISBN   978-0-691-17772-4.
  13. 1 2 "Project Description". Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  14. ↑ "About Jefferson Quotes & Family Letters". Jefferson Quotes & Family Letters. Retrieved 2016-06-08.
  15. ↑ "Second Series". The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Retrieved 2016-06-08.
  16. 1 2 "The Papers of Thomas Jefferson". The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  17. ↑ "P. J. Conkwright and Book Design" (PDF). Princeton University Press. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
  18. ↑ "Monticello: The History of a Typeface". Princeton University Press (reprint from Printing History, the Journal of the American Printing History Association). Retrieved 2016-06-07.
  19. ↑ Wood, Lewis (1950-05-18). "President Terms Jefferson 'Beacon' in War on Tyranny". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2016-06-08.
  20. ↑ "The Papers of Thomas Jefferson". UVA Press Rotunda. Retrieved 2016-06-08.
  21. 1 2 "Founders Online: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson". Founders Online/NARA. Retrieved 2022-03-09.
  22. ↑ "Founders Online: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson". Founders Online. Retrieved 2016-06-13.
  23. ↑ McClure, James (2017). The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN   978-0-691-17772-4.
  24. ↑ Schulz, Constance B. (1994-01-01). "Pondering Mr. Jefferson's Documentary Legacy: An Essay Review". The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. 92 (1): 73–79. JSTOR   23383133.
  25. ↑ Ferling, John (1998-01-01). "Review of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson Vol 23-27". The William and Mary Quarterly. 55 (4): 657–660. doi:10.2307/2674467. JSTOR   2674467.
  26. ↑ Hayes, Kevin J. (2010-01-01). Looney, J. Jefferson; Perdue, Susan Holbrook; Haggard, Robert F.; Anderson, Jill E.; Barnes, L. Diane; Beckel, Deborah; Lautenschlager, Julie L.; Ray, Kristofer M.; Francavilla, Lisa (eds.). "Jefferson in Retirement". Reviews in American History. 38 (1): 54–60. doi:10.1353/rah.0.0185. JSTOR   40589744. S2CID   145602386.
  27. ↑ "Historical Editions in the Digital Age". The Model Editions Partnership. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  28. ↑ Meacham, Jon (2012-01-01). Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power . Random House. p.  509. ISBN   9781400067664. one of the most formidable and significant scholarly understakings in American life.
  29. ↑ "The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series: v.1: 4 March to 15 November, 1809 (award)". ALA. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.