The Founders' Record
All Episodes Constellation Sources X · @foundersrecord
The Founders' Record · Source Index

Archive References

Every institutional archive, manuscript collection, and primary-source repository cited across the site. Each link goes directly to the holding institution, not a summary, not a secondary source.

43
Institutions
1,000+
Primary Documents
204
Episodes
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Federal Archives & Libraries8
Founders Online
founders.archives.gov · National Archives
National Archives digital edition of the papers of Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, Adams, and Franklin. The single most-cited source across this site.
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National Archives
archives.gov
Custodian of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights originals. Milestone Documents collection and DocsTeach primary-source tool.
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Library of Congress
loc.gov
Rare Book collections, the Printed Ephemera collection (Dunmore's Proclamation broadside), manuscript divisions, and the Jefferson rough draft exhibition.
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A Century of Lawmaking
memory.loc.gov · Library of Congress
U.S. Congressional documents 1774–1875. Journals of Congress, House and Senate journals, and Farrand's Records of the Federal Convention.
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DocsTeach
docsteach.org · National Archives
National Archives educational resource with primary document images. The 1807 Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves, the Lee Resolution, and others.
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Biographical Directory of Congress
bioguide.congress.gov
Official federal biographical records for every member of Congress from 1774 to the present. Used for Declaration signers and Convention delegates.
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Constitution Annotated
constitution.congress.gov · Congress.gov
Congressional Research Service analysis of each constitutional clause with primary source citations including Farrand's Records on the slavery provisions.
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United States Senate
senate.gov
Official Senate historical records including Vice Presidential tie-breaking votes, the Senate's first open session in 1795, and cabinet confirmation records.
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State, Colonial & Regional Archives8
Massachusetts Historical Society
masshist.org
Founded 1791. Paul Revere's deposition, the January 1777 freedom petition signed by Prince Hall and seven others, Adams family papers, and Abigail Adams's accounts of the siege of Boston.
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Library of Virginia
lva.virginia.gov
Virginia's colonial and state records. The Dictionary of Virginia Biography holds the full documentary record for Elizabeth Key (1656 freedom suit) and Anthony Johnson's estate.
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Maryland State Archives
msa.maryland.gov
Maryland colonial and state records. The 1704 Act to Prevent the Growth of Popery, Washington's Resignation Address draft, and Chesapeake colonial documents.
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Vermont State Archives
sos.vermont.gov · VSARA
Vermont's constitutions of 1777, 1786, and 1793. Chapter I, Article 1 of the 1777 constitution was the first provision limiting adult slavery written into any American fundamental law.
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Massachusetts Court System
mass.gov
The documentary record of Brom and Bett v Ashley and the Quock Walker cases, with photographs of original verdict sheets and Chief Justice Cushing's jury charge notes from 1783.
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Encyclopedia Virginia
encyclopediavirginia.org · Library of Virginia
Authoritative digital reference for Virginia history produced by the Library of Virginia. Hosts the text of the Virginia Slave Code of 1705 and Virginia colonial instruments.
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Massachusetts Archives
sec.state.ma.us
Commonwealth records including the 1792 resolve awarding Deborah Sampson a pension, gubernatorial inaugural addresses, and Shays' Rebellion materials.
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New Jersey State Library
njstatelib.org
New Jersey historical documents including colonial and Revolutionary War records for New Jersey's signers and founders.
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University Libraries & Collections9
Yale Avalon Project
avalon.law.yale.edu
Yale Law School's collection of law and history documents. Federalist Papers, founding-era statutes, treaties, Madison's convention notes index, and the Pennsylvania Gradual Abolition Act of 1780.
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Haverford Quaker Collections
tricolib.brynmawr.edu · HC.MC-975-11-055
The original manuscript of the Germantown Protest of April 18, 1688 , the earliest surviving antislavery protest by a religious body in the English colonies, with the three meeting endorsements.
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HathiTrust Digital Library
hdl.handle.net · hathitrust.org
Shared digital repository of university library collections. Used here for Hening's Statutes at Large, volumes 2, 3, and 11, containing Virginia's colonial slave codes and the 1782 act.
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Evans Early American Imprints
quod.lib.umich.edu · University of Michigan
Pre-1801 American printed works. Venture Smith's 1798 Narrative, James Otis's Rights of the British Colonies, John Witherspoon's 1776 sermon, and other founding-era texts.
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Franklin Papers
franklinpapers.org · Yale University
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, joint Yale and American Philosophical Society project. Used for Franklin's March 9, 1790 letter to Ezra Stiles on his religious beliefs.
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Brown University Digital Repository
repository.library.brown.edu
Stephen Hopkins's Rights of Colonies Examined and Rhode Island founding-era documents.
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Clements Library
clements.umich.edu · University of Michigan
Leading repository for original manuscript sources on American history to 1900. Arnold-André correspondence and Revolutionary War intelligence records.
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American Philosophical Society
amphilsoc.org
Founded by Franklin in 1743. Benjamin Rush Papers, medical writings, and Franklin Papers in partnership with Yale.
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Documenting the American South
docsouth.unc.edu · University of North Carolina
Primary sources on Southern history. First-person narratives, slave narratives, and founding-era accounts from the Southern colonies and states.
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Historical Societies & Foundations10
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
hsp.org
Clymer family papers, the Dickinson Papers including Patience Wright's letter, and the Francis Hopkinson Papers.
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Rhode Island Historical Society
rihs.org
William Ellery collection (Mss407) and Stephen Hopkins Papers covering Rhode Island's colonial and founding era.
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Connecticut Historical Society
chs.org
Oliver Wolcott, Samuel Huntington, and William Williams Papers . Connecticut's three Declaration signers.
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New Hampshire Historical Society
nhhistory.org
Josiah Bartlett Papers and William Whipple Papers . New Hampshire's two Declaration signers.
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South Carolina Historical Society
schs.org
Arthur Middleton Papers (1767–1783) and Thomas Lynch Jr. family papers (1749–1779) . South Carolina's Declaration signers.
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New-York Historical Society
nyhistory.org
New York Manumission Society records, André Papers, and founding-era New York documents.
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New York Public Library
digitalcollections.nypl.org
Samuel Adams Papers (1635–1826) and Robert Morris Papers (1751–1802).
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Virginia Museum of History & Culture
virginiahistory.org
Benjamin Harrison Papers, Berkeley Plantation records, and Bacon's Rebellion documentary sources.
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Gilder Lehrman Institute
gilderlehrman.org
Henry Knox's Orders of March, Molly Brant documents, New York Manumission Society records, and Lemuel Haynes's Liberty Further Extended (1776).
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Gunston Hall
gunstonhall.org
George Mason's plantation and the primary documentary record of enslaved people held at Gunston Hall.
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Digital Libraries & Text Collections7
Online Library of Liberty
oll.libertyfund.org · Liberty Fund
Scholarly editions of Locke's Two Treatises, Cato's Letters, the Federalist, Harrington's Oceana, Paine's Writings, and Jefferson's Works.
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Project Gutenberg
gutenberg.org
Free public domain ebooks. Franklin's Autobiography (eBook 148) and other founding-era texts whose copyright has expired.
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Internet Archive
archive.org
Ford's Pamphlets on the Constitution (1888), Venture Smith's Narrative, colonial dictionaries and schoolbooks, and page-image scans of rare founding-era printed works.
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Digital Public Library of America
dp.la
Aggregated digital collections from libraries and archives across the United States. Colonial literacy and education primary sources.
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Monticello · Thomas Jefferson Foundation
monticello.org
Research archive on Jefferson's life and Monticello, including the slavery research collection documenting the lives of people Jefferson enslaved.
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AfroVirginia
afrovirginia.org · Virginia Humanities
Virginia Humanities project documenting African American lives in Virginia history. Primary record for Anthony Johnson's estate, the 1670 jury verdict, and Northampton County documents.
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Slave Societies Digital Archive
slavesocieties.info · Vanderbilt University
Digitized ecclesiastical records from slave societies in the Americas. St. Augustine, Florida parish registers from 1594, the oldest serial records of African lives in what is now the United States.
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International Archives2
Lincoln's Inn Library & Archives
archives.lincolnsinn.org.uk
One of the four Inns of Court. Holds the case papers, Lofft's report, and Serjeant Hill's contemporary manuscript notes from Somerset v Stewart (1772).
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Library and Archives Canada
bac-lac.gc.ca
Upper Canada Executive Council records, the Claus Papers (MG 19-F1), and Loyalist Claims Commission records documenting British colonial figures and loyalist subjects.
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