Contact: Guy Lamolinara (202) 707-9217

February 2, 2004

Final Online Release of George Washington Papers to Appear January 30

The final release of digital images of the George Washington Papers from the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress will appear online on Jan 30 in the American Memory Web site at memory.loc.gov/ammem/gwhtml/gwhome.html.

In this final release, 45 items have been added. These letters, survey documents and other materials date from 1763 to 1797. They are a part of the Addenda to the Washington Papers, manuscripts acquired after the bulk of the collection had been processed and microfilmed. Among the newly added manuscripts are survey documents relating to the Dismal Swamp and letters to and from Washington, Noah Webster and Gen. John Cadwalader.

This final release will bring the total to more than 65,000 items, consisting of correspondence, letterbooks, commonplace books, diaries, journals, financial account books, military records, reports and notes accumulated by Washington from 1741 through 1799.

The George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress is the largest collection of original Washington documents in the world. Because of the wide range of Washington's interests, activities and correspondents, which include ordinary citizens as well as celebrated figures, his papers are a rich source for almost every aspect of colonial and early American history.

American Memory is a project of the National Digital Library Program of the Library of Congress. Its more than 120 collections, which range from papers of the U.S. presidents, Civil War photographs and early films of Thomas Edison to papers documenting the women’s suffrage and civil rights movements, Jazz Age photographs and the first baseball cards, include more than 8.5 million items from the Library of Congress and other major repositories. The latest Web site from the Library is the monthly "Wise Guide" (www.loc.gov/wiseguide) magazine, which demonstrates that "It’s Fun to Know History."

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PR 04-022
02/02/04
ISSN 0731-3527

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