Library of Congress Places More
Washington Documents Online

16 November 1999
By Laura Graham

The Library of Congress National Digital Library Program and the Manuscript Division announce the release of George Washington Papers Series 1, Exercise Books, Diaries, and Surveys, 1741-1799, and, in addition, with the Geography and Map Division, the release of a special presentation "Early Maps and Surveys Drawn or Annotated by George Washington." Both may be found at the Library of Congress's American Memory Collections Web site for the George Washington Papers at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gwhtml

Series 1a, Exercise Books, 1745-ante 1747, consists of three volumes. The first of these is "The Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation" (ante 1747) in Washington's hand and preceded by hand-copied legal forms, such as deeds of conveyance, with which an eighteenth-century youth aspiring to the status of a landowning gentleman would need to be familiar. Two more school copybooks from 1745 containing arithmetic, geometry, and surveying exercises complete Series 1a.

Series 1b, Diaries, 1748-1799, consists of thirty-six volumes dating from 1748 through 1799. Of special note among these are "Journey over the Mountain," Washington's account of his 1748 surveying trip to the Shenandoah Valley on behalf of prominent Virginia landowner, Lord Thomas Fairfax, and Washington's 1787 diary kept while presiding over the constitutional convention in Philadelphia. Fourteen of Washington's diaries were kept in the blank pages provided in eighteenth-century printed almanacs for such purposes. Entries throughout are devoted to weather observations, work and activities at Mount Vernon, social events and people, and Washington's public life. Images of Washington's diary pages have been enhanced in Photoshop, using a sharpening filter to improve legibility. In June 2000, transcriptions with annotations of George Washington's diaries will be provided online.

Series 1c, Surveys, 1749-1752, consists of four volumes of field notes, records of surveys, and land records. At the age of sixteen George Washington began working as a surveyor for the Fairfax family, the largest landowners in Virginia. Washington's survey books contain field notes, retained copies of final surveys, and notations of the fees received, recorded in Washington's handwriting. The surveys indicate the high skill attained by Washington at a young age and indicate the important information on Virginia land that Washington was able to parlay into valuable acquisitions for himself and his family connections. Most of the surveys were done in what is now the Winchester area of the Shenandoah Valley.

Accompanying the fifth release of the Washington Papers are maps and text from the Geography and Map Division. The National Digital Library Program and the Geography and Map Division announce a Special Presentation entitled "Early Maps and Surveys Drawn or Annotated By Washington," which includes several very important, very rare, and relatively unknown maps highlighting Washington's public surveying and land-speculation activities.

Over the course of his life Washington surveyed 80,000 acres of land in more than 200 professional surveys and drew or annotated more than fifty additional maps, plans, pen and ink sketches or architectural plans. Although not all of these maps have survived, the Library of Congress Manuscript and Geography and Map Divisions' collections constitute almost one third of extant Washington maps. The Geography and Map Division's collections include two finished survey plats (1748 and 1749), two early maps of the city of Alexandria (1748 and 1749), a 1760 map of land Washington purchased from William Clifton adjoining the Mount Vernon estate and a 1766 map of the same area, and a 1793 printed map of Mount Vernon based on an original map drawn by Washington.

In addition to his surveying career, Washington was an active land speculator. Beginning with his first land purchase at the age of eighteen and continuing throughout the rest of his life Washington eventually purchased approximately 70,000 acres in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Kentucky, and present-day West Virginia. The Geography and Map Division's collections include several maps directly relating to Washington's land speculation, including a unique 1774 manuscript map of western Virginia documenting the location of more than 20,000 acres patented by Washington and members of the Virginia Regiment in exchange for their military service in the French and Indian War.

The online delivery of these very large digital map files is accomplished using MrSid software, a wavelet compression technology made available to the Library of Congress by LizardTech of Seattle, Washington. MrSid software allows immediate access to any part of an image. While the map may be viewed in its entirety at selected sizes, MrSid software allows viewing of particular portions of the image requested by the viewer. Many of Washington's maps are now too fragile to be used for research in the original. This online presentation, then, makes available valuable items otherwise inaccessible to users.

The eight series of the Washington Papers have been presented online in five successive releases from February 1998 through this fifth release of Series 1, which consists of approximately 4,200 grayscale GIF preview and JPEG archival or reference images. The fifth release brings the total number of images online to 87,500. The total size of the collection is approximately 65,000 documents comprising 147,000 images. A final update of Series 4, General Correspondence, and release of transcriptions to accompany Series 1b, Diaries, in 2000 will complete the online presentation of the George Washington Papers.

The George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gwhtml

Laura Graham
Project Coordinator
National Digital Library Program
Library of Congress