Adams Papers Documentary Editing Project

FAIN: RQ-50554-11

Massachusetts Historical Society (Boston, MA 02215-3631)
C. James Taylor (Project Director: November 2010 to June 2016)

Preparation for publication of volumes 17 and 18 of the Papers of John Adams, and volumes 11 and 12 of the Adams Family Correspondence. (36 months)

The Adams Papers Documentary Editing Project is a comprehensive edition of the diaries, letters, official records, public writings, and literary miscellanies contained in the Adams Family Papers manuscript collection at the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, supplemented by Adams documents in other collections and archives. The project focuses on three generations of Adamses: John Adams, Abigail Adams, John Quincy Adams, Charles Francis Adams, and their families.

Associated Products

Papers of John Adams, Volume 16: February 1784-March 1785 (Book)
Title: Papers of John Adams, Volume 16: February 1784-March 1785
Author: John Adams
Editor: James T. Connolly
Editor: Taylor, C. James, Editor in Chief;
Editor: Gregg L. Lint
Editor: Robert Karachuk
Editor: Hobson Woodward
Editor: Margaret A. Hogan
Editor: Neal E. Millikan
Editor: Sara B. Sikes
Editor: Sara Martin
Editor: Sara Georgini
Editor: Amanda A. Matthews
Abstract: Volume 16 of the Papers of John Adams chronicles fourteen months of Adams’ diplomatic career. As minister to the Netherlands he raised a new Dutch loan to save America from financial ruin. As joint commissioner he negotiated a commercial treaty with Prussia, proposed similar treaties with other European nations, and prepared to negotiate with the Barbary states. The commissioners also sought to resolve Anglo-American differences left over from the peace negotiations and arising from the two nations’ burgeoning trade. Volume 16 thus forms a prelude to the next phase of John Adams’ diplomatic career, for his February 1785 appointment as minister to the Court of St. James meant that the management of Anglo-American relations would be his responsibility alone.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/papers-of-john-adams-volume-16-february-1784-march-1785/oclc/769545355&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: Worldcat listing
Secondary URL: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?recid=31791
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's listing
Access Model: Book
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9780674065574

The Adams Papers: Diary and Autobiographical Writings of Louisa Catherine Adams, Volumes 1 and 2, 1779-1849 (Book)
Title: The Adams Papers: Diary and Autobiographical Writings of Louisa Catherine Adams, Volumes 1 and 2, 1779-1849
Author: Louisa Catherine Adams
Editor: Judith S. Graham
Editor: Beth Luey
Editor: Margaret A. Hogan
Editor: C. James Taylor
Abstract: The Adams saga takes a stride through the first half of the nineteenth century, as Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams chronicles her life with John Quincy Adams. Born in London in 1775 to a Maryland merchant and his English wife, Louisa recalls her childhood and education in England and France and her courtship with John Quincy, then U.S. minister to the Netherlands. Married in 1797, Louisa accompanied her husband on his postings to Berlin, St. Petersburg, and London. Her memoirs of Prussia and Russia vividly portray the republican couple in the courts of Europe. Louisa came to America in 1801 and would share John Quincy’s career as U.S. senator, secretary of state, president, and congressman. Except for his presidency, her diaries for these years have been preserved, and they reveal a reluctant but increasingly canny political wife. Lamentations about loss, including the deaths of three of four children, abound. But here, too, are views of Napoleonic Europe and American sectional disputes, with witty sketches of heroes and scoundrels. John Quincy emerges in a fullness seldom seen—ambitious and exacting, yet passionate, generous, and gallant. Louisa's diaries conclude with her reckoning of an eventful life, which came to a close in 1852.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/diary-and-autobiographical-writings-of-louisa-catherine-adams/oclc/757935765&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: WorldCat listing
Secondary URL: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674058682
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's listing
Access Model: Book
Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9780674058682
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 11: July 1795-February 1797 (Book)
Title: Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 11: July 1795-February 1797
Author: Adams Family
Editor: Gregg L. Lint
Editor: Margaret A. Hogan
Editor: C. James Taylor
Editor: Sara Martin
Editor: Neal E. Millikan
Editor: Hobson Woodward
Editor: Sara B. Sikes
Abstract: The letters in this volume of Adams Family Correspondence span the period from July 1795 to the eve of John Adams’s inauguration, with the growing partisan divide leading up to the election playing a central role. The fiery debate over funding the Jay Treaty sets the political stage, and the caustic exchanges between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans only grow as rumors surface of George Washington’s impending retirement. From Philadelphia, John’s equanimity in reporting to Abigail and his children on the speculation about the presidential successor gives way to expectation and surprise at the voracity of electioneering among political allies and opponents alike. Although remaining in Quincy throughout this period, Abigail offers keen, even acerbic, commentary on these national events. From Europe, John Quincy and Thomas Boylston shed light on the rise of the French Directory, the shifts in the continental war, and the struggles within the Batavian government. Their letters also testify to the broader scale of the U.S. presidential election by chronicling French and British attempts to influence American politics. On a more personal note, John Quincy’s engagement to Louisa Catherine Johnson in London opens the next great collection of correspondence documenting the Adams family saga.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/adams-family-correspondence-july-1795-february-1797/oclc/812067672&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: WorldCat listing
Secondary URL: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674072442
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's listing
Access Model: Book
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9780674072442
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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