Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789

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At the Library of Congress  | Selected Bibliography

At the Library of Congress

American Memory

African-American Pamphlets
From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1822-1909 presents 396 pamphlets from the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, published from 1822 through 1909, by African-American authors and others who wrote about slavery, African colonization, Emancipation, Reconstruction, and related topics. The materials range from personal accounts and public orations to organizational reports and legislative speeches. Among the authors represented are Frederick Douglass, Kelly Miller, Charles Sumner, Mary Church Terrell, and Booker T. Washington.

Elliot's Debates (The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution) 5 volumes
The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution were compiled by Jonathan Elliot in the mid-nineteenth century. They stand today as the best source for materials for the period between the closing of the Constitutional Convention in September 1787 and the opening of the first Federal Congress in March 1789.

Farrand's Record (The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787) 3 volumes
One of the great scholarly efforts of the early twentieth century was Max Farrand's gathering of the documentary records of the Constitutional Convention. Published in 1911, The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 contained the materials necessary for a study of the workings of the Constitutional Convention. Farrand's Records remains the single best source for discussions of the Constitutional Convention.

Journals of the Continental Congress 34 volumes
The Journals of the Continental Congress are the records of the daily proceedings of the Congress as kept by the office of its secretary, Charles Thomson. The Journals were printed contemporaneously in different editions and in several subsequent reprint editions.

Nineteenth-Century Periodicals
This collection presents twenty-three popular periodicals digitized by Cornell University Library and the Preservation Reformatting Division of the Library of Congress. They include literary and political magazines, as well as Scientific American, Manufacturer and Builder, and Garden and Forest: A Journal of Horticulture, Landscape Art, and Forestry. The longest run is for The North American Review, 1815-1900.

Printed Ephemera
The Printed Ephemera collection at the Library of Congress is a rich repository of Americana. In total, the collection comprises 28,000 primary-source items dating from the seventeenth century to the present and encompasses key events and eras in American history. The first release of the digitized Printed Ephemera Collection presented more than 7,000 items. This release presents more than 10,000 items. While the broadside format represents the bulk of the collection, there are a significant number of leaflets and some pamphlets. Rich in variety, the collection includes proclamations, advertisements, blank forms, programs, election tickets, catalogs, clippings, timetables, and menus. They capture the everyday activities of ordinary people who participated in the events of nation-building and experienced the growth of the nation from the American Revolution through the Industrial Revolution up to present day. A future final release will include thousands of oversize items in the collection.

The Thomas Jefferson Papers
The complete Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress consists of approximately 27,000 documents ranging in date from 1606 to 1827. Correspondence, memoranda, notes, and drafts of documents make up two-thirds of the Papers. Jefferson's two administrations as president from 1801 to 1809 are well-documented, as are his activities as a delegate to the second Continental Congress, his drafting of the Declaration of Independence in June-July 1776, his service as governor of Virginia, 1779-81, his return to Congress as a representative, 1783-84, and his appointment as minister plenipotentiary in Europe and then minister to the Court of Louis XVI, 1784-89. Correspondence, drawings, maps, and notes document the building of Washington, D.C. Some of Jefferson's legal and literary commonplace books, miscellaneous bound volumes of notes and extracts, and manuscript volumes relating to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Virginia history were part of the personal library he sold to Congress in 1815 and are included in this collection.

George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799
The online version of the George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress offers access to the complete collection from the Library's Manuscript Division. This consists of approximately 65,000 items (176,000 pages). Correspondence, letterbooks, commonplace books, diaries and journals, reports, notes, financial account books, and military papers accumulated by George Washington from 1741 through 1799 are organized into eight Series.

Words and Deeds in American History
In honor of the Manuscript Division's centennial, its staff has selected for online display approximately ninety representative documents spanning from the fifteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. Included are the papers of presidents, cabinet ministers, members of Congress, Supreme Court justices, military officers and diplomats, reformers and political activists, artists and writers, scientists and inventors, and other prominent Americans whose lives reflect our country's evolution. Most of the selected items fall within one of eight major themes or categories which reflect the division's strengths. Each of these themes is the focus of a separate essay containing links to digital reproductions of selected documents. A detailed description accompanies each document, and additional information about the parent collections may be obtained by following links to catalog records and finding aids.

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