Adams Papers Editorial Project

FAIN: RQ-271248-20

Massachusetts Historical Society (Boston, MA 02215-3631)
Sara Martin (Project Director: December 2019 to present)

Preparation for publication of volumes 20, 21, and 22 of the papers of John Adams (1735-1826) and volumes 15, 16, and 17 of the Adams Family's correspondence. (24 months)

The Adams Papers Editorial Project at the Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) is the authoritative scholarly edition of the diaries, letters, official records, public writings, and literary miscellanies written by three generations of the Adams family of Massachusetts, including Abigail Adams, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Charles Francis Adams, and their families. Based on the Adams Family Papers collection at the MHS and supplemented by Adams manuscripts in other archives, this family record charts the changes that transformed American life between the American Revolution and the Civil War. Since 1956, the project has published 55 volumes, with 47 freely available online. Editors are focused on the founding generation’s efforts to establish the American union, a complex saga that will unfold in 20 more volumes by 2040. The Adams Papers has received the aid of the NEH continuously since 2003, and we seek further support to make this unparalleled resource accessible to all.

Associated Products

Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13, Adams Papers Digital Edition (Web Resource)
Title: Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13, Adams Papers Digital Edition
Author: Sara Martin
Author: Hobson Woodward
Author: Christopher F. Minty
Author: Amanda M. Norton
Author: Neal E. Millikan
Author: Emily Ross
Author: Sara B. Sikes
Author: Sara Georgini
Abstract: This volume of Adams Family Correspondence spans the tumultuous period May 1798 through September 1799 and chronicles in 288 documents an important period in John and Abigail Adams's public life, as well as John Quincy Adams's diplomatic career. With relations with France teetering on the brink of war and deepening divisions within the Federalist party at home, John Adams's presidency was fraught with tension. Abigail Adams served as his trusted confidant and advisor and wielded her public power to aid her husband's administration. From Europe, the couple's eldest son, John Quincy Adams, sent vital reports home on conditions abroad. The letterpress volume was published in 2017, and it was converted to the Adams Papers Digital Edition and made freely accessible to the public in June 2021.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/volume/ADMS-04-13
Primary URL Description: This is the link to the landing page for Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13, as included in the Adams Papers Digital Edition on the website of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Adams Family Correspondence, volume 15 (Book)
Title: Adams Family Correspondence, volume 15
Author: Abigail Adams
Author: John Adams
Author: John Quincy Adams
Author: Louisa Catherine Adams
Author: Thomas Boylston Adams
Editor: Hobson Woodward
Editor: Sara Martin
Editor: Christopher F. Minty
Editor: Neal E. Millikan
Editor: Gwen Fries
Editor: Amanda M. Norton
Editor: Sara Georgini
Editor: R. M. Barlow
Abstract: This volume of Adams Family Correspondence spans the period March 1801 to October 1804 and chronicles in 251 letters a generational transition. Abigail and John Adams yield the political center to John Quincy Adams, who returns from abroad to take a seat in the United States Senate just in time to earn the ire of both Federalists and Democratic-Republicans over his votes on the Louisiana Purchase. From Quincy, the elder Adamses kept watchful gazes on American political life and, especially, the actions of the new administration, including the dismantling of the judicial reforms enacted at the end of John Adams’s presidency and the mobilization of the navy for the Barbary wars. A highlight is the lively exchange between Abigail Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Set against these major political shifts are equally compelling transitions within the Adamses’ private lives, including financial disaster for John and Abigail and increases to the next generation of Adamses with the birth of the first two of John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams’s children.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/title/1276798785
Primary URL Description: This is the link to the volume as it appears in worldcat.org.
Secondary URL: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674247734
Secondary URL Description: This is the link to the volume on the publisher's website.
Access Model: Book
Publisher: Belknap Imprint of Harvard University Press
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 978–0–674–2477
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

Papers of John Adams, volume 21 (Book)
Title: Papers of John Adams, volume 21
Author: John Adams
Editor: Sara Georgini
Editor: Sara Martin
Editor: R. M. Barlow
Editor: Gwen Fries
Editor: Amanda M. Norton
Editor: Hobson Woodward
Abstract: This volume of the Papers of John Adams covers John Adams’s vice presidency from March 1791 to January 1797. As the early American republic grew, external threats to its neutrality and trade magnified. The French Revolution kindled a massive European war that remapped boundaries and alliances. New political parties skirmished in the transatlantic press, scorching the personal and professional relationships of longtime colleagues like Adams and Thomas Jefferson. George Washington’s fractious cabinet offered little support for Adams’ views and plans, and Adams tried to reconcile his hopes for the fragile democracy with the public actions needed to keep the nation afloat. He aimed to protect the federal “Machine in motion” from the effects of clashes with Native peoples on the western frontiers, the ravages of a yellow fever epidemic, and the political consequences of the Whiskey Rebellion. Washington’s decision to retire, coupled with the Jay Treaty’s controversial reception, crystallized Adams’ thinking on questions of foreign policy and executive power. Readying to step into the presidency, John Adams’ candid observations on the theory and practice of government illuminate the union’s struggle to endure.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/title/1355311948
Primary URL Description: This is the listing in worldcat.org.
Secondary URL: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674247772
Secondary URL Description: This link to the publisher's listing.
Access Model: Book
Publisher: The Belknap Imprint of Harvard University Press
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 978–0–674–2477
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

Papers of John Adams, volume 19, Adams Papers Digital Edition (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Papers of John Adams, volume 19, Adams Papers Digital Edition
Author: John Adams
Abstract: This volume of the Papers of John Adams chronicles in 341 letters John Adams’s final duties as the American minister to Great Britain and the Netherlands. In the 28 months documented (February 1787 – May 1789), he petitioned the British ministry to halt impressment of American sailors, toured the English countryside, and observed parliamentary politics as the threat of a general war shadowed the continent. Adams salvaged American credit by contracting two new Dutch loans amid the political chaos triggered by William V’s resurgence. Adams also penned the final two volumes of his work, A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America. He returned to the United States and a happy but brief retirement. By volume’s end, John Adams resumed public life, ready to serve as America’s first vice president. The letterpress volume was published in 2018 and was converted to the Adams Papers Digital Edition and made freely accessible to the public in March 2022.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/volume/ADMS-06-19
Primary URL Description: This is the link to the landing page for the Papers of John Adams, volume 19, as included in the Adams Papers Digital Edition on the website of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Secondary URL: https://founders.archives.gov/?q=Project%3A%22Adams%20Papers%22&s=1511311111&sa=wren%2C%20thomas&r=1
Secondary URL Description: The annotated documents within this volume are also available within Founders Online; see for example the link above.
Access Model: Open access

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