The Project
The Papers of George Washington,
a grant-funded project, was established in 1968 at the University
of Virginia, under the joint auspices of the University and the Mount
Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, to publish a comprehensive edition
of Washington's correspondence.
Letters written to Washington as well as letters and documents written
by him are bring published in the complete edition that will
consist of approximately ninety volumes. The work is now more than two-thirds complete.
The edition is supported
financially by grants from the National
Endowment for the Humanities, the National
Historical Publications and Records Commission, the Mount
Vernon Ladies' Association, the University of Virginia, and gifts from private foundations and individuals.
Today there are copies of over 135,000 Washington documents in the project’s document room. This is one of the richest collections of American historical manuscripts extant.
There is almost no facet of research on life and enterprise in the late
colonial and early national periods that will not be enhanced by material
from these documents. The publication of Washington's papers will make
this source material available not only to scholars but to all Americans
interested in the founding of their nation.
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The Letterpress Edition
The Diaries were the first completed and constitute six volumes. The correspondence
of The Papers of George Washington, 1748–1799, was published chronologically in five
series that include not only Washington's own letters and other papers but
also all letters written to him. The ten-volume Colonial
Series (1744–1775) takes Washington through the French and Indian War and then focuses on his political
and business activities as a Virginia planter before the Revolution. The massive Revolutionary
War Series (1775–1783) - still in process - presents in documents and annotations the
myriad military and political matters with which Washington dealt during
the long war. The papers for his years at Mount Vernon before becoming president were published in the six-volume
Confederation Series (1784–1788).
His two-term presidency is being covered in the Presidential
Series (1788–1797) - still in process - and the remaining years of his life at Mount Vernon are presented in the Retirement
Series (1797–1799).
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The Digital Edition
A landmark in historical scholarship, The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition encompasses the five separate series and the complete diaries in one online publication. You may search on full text and by date, author, or recipient across all volumes and series. The exceptional indexing of the individual print volumes is combined here into a single master index, and all internal document cross-references are linked. Enclosures and associated documents referenced in the annotation, as well as Washington's voluminous financial records, will eventually be added to the Digital Edition.
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