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Memory online collections To: H-AMSTDY@H-NET.MSU.EDU >Date: Friday, September 15, 2000 9:13 PM >From: Danna Bell-Russel <dbell@LOC.GOV> The National Digital Library Program and the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress and the University Press of Virginia are pleased to announce the release of the documentary edition The Diaries of George Washington on the American Memory Collections Web site at <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gwhtml/> The Diaries are the work of the editors of The Papers of George Washington at the University of Virginia. Also included in this release is the remainder of Series 4, General Correspondence, completing the online presentation of the George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress. George Washington's diaries (1748-1799) offer a unique window into the daily life of the most celebrated founder of the United States. Unlike Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, and Benjamin Franklin, Washington kept a daily diary for much of his life, from his first surveying trip in 1748 until December 13, 1799, the day before his death. The Library of Congress holds thirty-seven of fifty-one known diary volumes and diary fragments. The published documentary edition, The Diaries of George Washington, edited by Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, includes all fifty-one diaries and diary fragments. This release makes all these materials available to the public as searchable text and as bitonal and grayscale page images. The Diaries are one of six series in the documentary edition The Papers of George Washington (http://www.virginia.edu/gwpapers/) published by the University Press of Virginia (http://www.upress.virginia.edu/index.html). The documentary edition provides diary introductions and annotations that identify all persons mentioned in the texts, explain their relationship to Washington and his activities, and are often accompanied by portrait reproductions. The editors have identified the slaves and white artisans Washington employed on his farms, as well as the plants, crops, implements, and mechanical devices with which he experimented. Historical background about major events in Washington's life clarifies and enriches the significance of the diary texts. The volumes feature a variety of maps and illustrations. During the course of his life Washington kept many different kinds of diaries: travel diaries; diaries devoted to specific events; and most consistently daily diaries of weather, work, and events at Mount Vernon and his various farms. He kept diaries during his visit to Barbados in 1751-52 with his half-brother Lawrence who was seeking to recover his health; and for his expeditions to the Ohio River region in 1753-54, during the preliminary phases of the French and Indian (or Seven Year) War. He began his Revolutionary War diary at Yorktown in 1781, lamenting "not having attempted it from the commencement of the War, . . . ." At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, Washington sent to Mount Vernon for his current diary volume so he could maintain it while he presided over the convention's proceedings. Significant diaries for Washington's presidency from 1789-1796 survive in the form of journals of presidential tours of New England in 1789 and of the South in 1791. Washington began keeping daily diaries of his life at Mount Vernon by 1760. Mount Vernon became his property in 1758, and eventually it consisted of five separate farms. Washington was devoted to its expansion and development, and the "diaries are a monument to that concern," as the editors of the documentary edition note (vol. I, p. xxvi). Often kept in the blank pages of published Virginia almanacs, Washington's entries record family, neighborhood, and local events; weather; and most importantly his transition from planter to farmer, from his early frustrating efforts with the cash crop tobacco to a commitment to diversification and production for a domestic market and his abiding interest in experimentation with the latest agricultural methods. Shortly before his death, Washington was drafting yet another plan for crop rotation and new farming operations. The definitive transcriptions, introductory essays, and rich annotation provided by The Diaries of George Washington offer a unique opportunity to explore the thoughts, activities, and historical world of one of our nation's essential founders. The online presentation of these materials now makes them available to a much wider audience than ever before. Please direct all questions to NDLPCOLL@loc.gov Danna Bell-Russel<dbell@LOC.GOV>
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