Early American Manuscripts project
About the project
With support from the The Polonsky Foundation, The New York Public Library is currently digitizing
upwards of 50,000 pages of historic early American manuscript material. The Early American Manuscripts Project
will allow students, researchers, and the general public to revisit major political events of the era from new
perspectives and to explore currents of everyday social, cultural, and economic life in the colonial,
revolutionary, and early national periods. The project will present on-line for the first time high quality
facsimiles of key documents from America’s Founding, including the papers of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson,
Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. Drawing on the full breadth of the Library’s manuscript collections, it
will also make widely available less well-known manuscript sources, including business papers of Atlantic
merchants, diaries of people ranging from elite New York women to Christian Indian preachers, and organizational
records of voluntary associations and philanthropic organizations. Over the next two years, this trove of
manuscript sources, previously available only at The Library, will be made freely available through www.nypl.org.
Letterbook of Lewis Ogden of Hill & Ogden, New York merchants, 1787
April 10-1798 June 16.
Blog posts
George Chalmers and the History Wars of the American Revolutionary Era
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/06/12/george-chalmers-history-wars
Letterbooks, Indexes, and Learning about Early American Business
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/07/20/letterbooks-in-early-american-busin…
Traces from Jefferson's Account Book
The Hemings Family
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/07/27/thomas-jefferson-account-book
Traveling the Roads of Early America with Jefferson
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/08/12/traveling-with-jefferson
The Olive Branch and the Declaration of Independence
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/06/30/olive-branch-petition
Unexpected Sources: Slave Cloth in the Richard Henry Lee Letters
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/09/03/unexpected-sources-slave-cloth
Reintroducing the Boston Committee of Correspondence Records
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/10/06/boston-committee-correspondence-research
Joseph Hawley Papers Digitized
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/10/08/joseph-hawley-papers-digitized
Founding Firefighters: Volunteer Firefighters and Early American Constitutional History
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/10/22/chelsea-fire-club-records
The United States of Fredonia?
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/11/12/united-states-fredonia
Top 9 Documents from the Boston Committee of Correspondence Records
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/11/30/boston-committee-documents
Silas Deane: Reading and Parenting in Revolutionary America
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/12/21/silas-deane-reading-parenting-america
The Diary of Elizabeth De Hart Bleecker, 1799-1806
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/01/14/dehardt-bleecker-diary
Elizabeth De Hart Bleecker Diary, February 8, 1800
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/02/08/bleecker-diary-today
Hannah Lawrence Schieffelin's Journey Through Revolutionary America
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/01/25/hannah-lawrence-schieffelin
Digitized archival collections
Elizabeth De Hart Bleecker diary
Boston Committee of Correspondence records
Minutes of the Committee of Brookhaven, Manor of St. George and Patentship of Moriches
George Chalmers collection - New York
George Chalmers collection - Virginia
Chelsea Fire Club record book
http://archives.nypl.org/mss/638
Hugh Gaine receipt book
Hugh Gaine papers
Gouverneur & Kemble cash book
http://archives.nypl.org/18816
Gouverneur & Kemble letter book
Alexander Hamilton papers
Alexander Hamilton plan of a constitution for America
http://archives.nypl.org/mss/23121
Joseph Hawley papers
Joseph Hawley correspondence and documents
http://archives.nypl.org/23227
Thomas Jefferson papers
Thomas Jefferson account book
http://archives.nypl.org/23168
Joseph Johnson diary
Henry Knox papers
James Madison papers
Philip Mazzei papers
Theodorus Bailey Myers collection
New York State Comptroller memorandum book
New York Court of Vice Admiralty records
Adolph Philipse estate records
Fort Niagara statement of account with Edward Pollard
Hannah Schieffelin narrative (Schieffelin family papers)
Reports of the Board of Treasury
George Washington notebook as a Virginia colonel
http://archives.nypl.org/23122
Noah Webster papers
Oliver Wolcott letterbook
George Gibbs collection of Oliver Wolcott correspondence
Lewis Ogden letterbook
Silas Deane letters
Richard Henry Lee letters
Contact
Learn more about the Early American Manuscripts Project, ask questions, and find out how to
access resources held in the Manuscripts and Archives Division by contacting manuscripts@nypl.org.