Message-Id: <199902162201.PAA06478@dns.ccit.arizona.edu> Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 13:40:13 -0400 From: Tamara Swora-Gober <mailto:tswo@LOC.GOV> Subject: LC National Digital Library Program announces George Washington To: mailto:IMAGELIB@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
*********** This information is being widely cross-posted.From: Library of Congress National Digital Library Program mailto:ndlpcoll@loc.gov http://memory.loc.gov
The Library of Congress National Digital Library Program and the Manuscript Division announce the third release of the George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress on the American Memory Collections website at
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gwhtml/.
The first release in February 1998 included Series 2, Letterbooks, 1754-1799; the second release in August 1998 included Series 3, Varick Transcripts, 1775-1783, and Series 5, Financial Papers, 1750-1796. This third release includes the first installment of Series 4, General Correspondence, 1697 through July 2, 1776; Series 6, Military Papers, 1755-1798; Series 7, Applications for Office, 1789-1796; and Series 8, Miscellaneous Papers, ca. 1775-1799. The entire collection is being scanned from 35mm roll microfilm.
Series 4 consists of incoming correspondence, which complements Series 2 and 3 Letterbooks, containing copies of Washington's outgoing letters. Late seventeenth-century wills of Washington's grand-uncle John Washington and his grandfather Lawrence Washington are among the remarkable documents in Series 4. Transcriptions that accompany documents are taken from the five-volume LETTERS TO WASHINGTON AND ACCOMPANYING PAPERS, ed. Stanislaus Murray Hamilton (New York, 1898).
Series 6, Military Papers (2600 images), includes colonial orderly and memoranda books, and, for the Revolutionary War period, captured British orderly books, accounts of interrogations of British deserters, correspondence, reports, and other kinds of records.
Series 7, Applications for Office (6600 images), consists of letters from a great diversity of candidates. These often include personal accounts and letters of reference, presenting a slice of social history of the early federal government and perhaps also providing sources for genealogical research.
Lastly, Series 8, Miscellaneous Papers (800 images), includes four small groupings: a small collection of manuscript letters from Washington, 1773-99; military commissions, honorary degrees, certificates, and memberships, 1775-98; surveying instructions, 1750-52; and volumes of extracts, abstracts, and notes on political and agricultural topics written by Washington, 1760-1799.
This third release of the George Washington Papers comprises approximately 19,000 images, presented online as GIF images with 200 dpi grayscale JPEG images also available.
Together, the first, second, and third releases of the Washington Papers represent approximately 50,000 images, one-third of the 147,000 images that will make up the whole online collection. The next update of Series 4, General Correspondence, will bring that Series up from July 2, 1776 to October 20, 1779, adding approximately 25,000 images to the first intallment of 7,000, and, bringing the Washington Papers collection as a whole to its two-thirds mark. Series 1, Exercise Books and Diaries, 1741-1799, will be the final series of the George Washington Papers to be presented online.