FDLP Resource Guides: Presidential Documents: Presidents and Presidential History

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The Presidents

#1 George Washington

George Washington Papers (Library of Congress) The papers of army officer and first U.S. president George Washington (1732-1799) held in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress constitute the largest collection of original Washington papers in the world. They consist of approximately 65,000 items accumulated by Washington between 1745 and 1799, including correspondence, diaries, and financial and military records.

#3 Thomas Jefferson Papers

Thomas Jefferson Papers, 1606 to 1827 (Library of Congress) The papers of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), diplomat, architect, scientist, and third president of the United States, held in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, consist of approximately 27,000 items, making it the largest collection of original Jefferson documents in the world. Dating from the early 1760s through his death in 1826, the Thomas Jefferson Papers consist mainly of his correspondence, but they also include his drafts of the Declaration of Independence, drafts of Virginia laws; his fragmentary autobiography; the small memorandum books he used to record his spending; the pages on which for many years he daily recorded the weather; many charts, lists, tables, and drawings recording his scientific and other observations; notes; maps; recipes; ciphers; locks of hair; wool samples; and more.

#4 James Madison

James Madison Papers, 1723 to 1859 (Library of Congress) James Madison (1751-1836) is one of 23 presidents whose papers are held in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. The Madison Papers consist of approximately 12,000 items, spanning the period 1723-1859, captured in some 72,000 digital images.

#5 James Monroe

James Monroe Papers (Library of Congress) The James Monroe Papers at the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress consist of approximately 5,200 items dating from 1758 to 1839. Monroe (1758–1831) was the fifth president of the United States, and one of 23 presidents whose papers are at the Library of Congress. Monroe's papers document his presidency and also his prior careers as secretary of state, secretary of war, delegate to the United States Continental Congress, diplomat, and governor of Virginia. Topics covered include the negotiations with France for the Louisiana Purchase (1803), the Monroe-Pinkney treaty with Great Britain (1806), the War of 1812 (1812-1815), the Missouri Compromise (1820), the purchase of Florida from Spain (1819–1821), the Monroe Doctrine (1823), and Virginia politics.

#7 Andrew Jackson

The Andrew Jackson Papers (Library of Congress) The Andrew Jackson Papers is one of twenty-three presidential collections in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. The Jackson archival collection contains more than 26,000 items.

#8 Martin Van Buren

Martin Van Buren Papers, 1787 to 1910 (Library of Congress) The Martin Van Buren Papers, one of twenty-three presidential collections in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, contains more than 6,000 items dating from 1787 to circa 1910. The bulk of the material dates from the 1820s, when Van Buren (1782-1862) was a U.S. senator from New York, through his service as secretary of state and vice president in the Andrew Jackson administrations (1829-1837), to his own presidency (1837-1841) and through the decade thereafter when he made unsuccessful bids to return to the presidency with the Democratic and Free Soil parties.

#9 William Henry Harrison

William Henry Harrison Papers (Library of Congress) The William Henry Harrison Papers, one of twenty-three presidential collections in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, contains approximately 1,000 items dating from 1734 to 1939.

#10 John Tyler

John Tyler Papers (Library of Congress) The John Tyler Papers, one of twenty-three presidential collections in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, contains more than 1,400 items dating from 1691 to 1918, most of which fall between 1757 and 1918. The collection is made up primarily of correspondence, including letters and copies of letters to or from Tyler (1790-1862), a governor and U.S. representative and senator from Virginia, who served as vice president under William Henry Harrison before becoming the tenth president of the United States upon Harrison’s death in 1841.

#12 Zachary Taylor

Zachary Taylor Papers (Library of Congress) The Zachary Taylor Papers, one of twenty-three presidential collections in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, contains approximately 650 items dating from 1814 to 1931, with the bulk from 1840 to 1861. The collection is made up primarily of general correspondence and family papers of Taylor (1784-1850), with some autobiographical material, business and military records, printed documents, engraved printed portraits, and other miscellany relating chiefly to his presidency (1849-1850); his service as a U.S. Army officer, especially in the 2nd Seminole Indian War; management of his plantations; and settlement of his estate.

#13 Millard Fillmore

Millard Fillmore Papers (Library of Congress) The papers of Millard Fillmore (1800-1874), educator, U.S. representative from New York, vice president, and thirteenth president of the United States, contain approximately thirty-five items spanning the years 1839-1925, with the bulk dating from 1839 to 1870.

#16 Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln Papers (Library of Congress) The complete Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress consists of approximately 20,000 documents. The collection is organized into three "General Correspondence" series which include incoming and outgoing correspondence and enclosures, drafts of speeches, and notes and printed material. Most of the 20,000 items are from the 1850s through Lincoln's presidential years, 1860-65. Treasures include Lincoln's draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, his March 4, 1865, draft of his second Inaugural Address, and his August 23, 1864, memorandum expressing his expectation of being defeated for re-election in the upcoming presidential contest.
The Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana (Library of Congress) The collection contains more than 11,100 items. This online release presents over 1,300 items with a over 4,000 images and a date range of 1824-1931. It includes the complete collection of Stern's contemporary newspapers, Lincoln's law papers, sheet music, broadsides, prints, cartoons, maps, drawings, letters, campaign tickets, and other ephemeral items.
Abraham Lincoln: a legacy of freedom
A book in honor of 200th anniversary of the
birth of Abraham Lincoln, where Lincoln is considered from different angles.

# 29 Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding-Carrie Fulton Phillips Correspondence (Library of Congress) This correspondence (240 items; 1910-1924) consists primarily of letters written by President Harding (1865-1923), before and during his tenure as a U.S. senator, to his paramour Carrie Fulton Phillips (1873-1960), wife of a Marion, Ohio, store owner. Also included are drafts and notes for correspondence written by Phillips during her approximately fifteen-year relationship with Harding, as well as a handful of other related items.

#35 John F. Kennedy

JFK Assassination Records
The University of Mississippi Libraries
President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection
The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection includes a recording of conversations between various individuals in Washington and Air Force One pilots and officials on board during the flight from Dallas to Andrews Air Force Base following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. This collection also includes the Warren Commission Report and 26 hearing volumes. The Warren Commission was created by President Lyndon Johnson and chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren to investigate President Kennedy's assassination.

#37 Richard M. Nixon

Records of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, 1971 -1977 The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has made available 26 files from its Records of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force collection including transcripts of President Nixon’s grand jury testimony of June 23-24, 1975. This is as a result of the July 29, 2011 order by Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia Royce C. Lamberth that the transcript of Nixon’s testimony and the “Associated Materials” to that testimony be released to the public following the review of these documents for any information that must be redacted as required by law.

#43 George W. Bush

100 things Americans may not know about the Bush Administration record