Adams Papers Documentary Editing Project

FAIN: RQ-50690-13

Massachusetts Historical Society (Boston, MA 02215-3631)
C. James Taylor (Project Director: December 2012 to April 2015)
Sara Martin (Project Director: April 2015 to June 2016)

Preparation for publication of two volumes (18 and 19) of the papers of John Adams (1735-1826), Revolutionary leader and second president of the United States, and two volumes (12 and 13) of his family's 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 17, April-November 1785 (Book)
Title: Papers of John Adams: Volume 17, April-November 1785
Author: John Adams
Editor: Sara Martin
Editor: Greg L. Lint
Editor: C. James Taylor
Editor: Sara Georgini
Editor: Hobson Woodward
Editor: Sara B. Sikes
Editor: Amanda A. Mathews
Abstract: “You may well Suppose that I was the Focus of all Eyes,” John Adams wrote on 2 June 1785 of his first audience with George III, which formally inaugurated the post of American minister to Great Britain. Eager to restore “the old good Nature and the old good Humour” between the two nations, Adams spent the following months establishing the U.S. legation at No. 8 Grosvenor Square. For Adams, it was a period of multiple responsibilities and mixed success. He remained minister to the Netherlands and one of the joint commissioners charged with negotiating commercial treaties with the nations of Europe and North Africa—sensitive duties that occasionally called for Adams to encode his correspondence with the aid of his new secretary and future son-in-law, Col. William Stephens Smith. Rebuffed by the British ministry in his mission to enforce the peace treaty of 1783 and renew Anglo–American commerce, Adams identified and achieved other goals. He preserved American credit despite the bankruptcy of a Dutch banking house that handled U.S. loans, petitioned for the release of impressed sailors, marked the ratification of the Prussian–American treaty, championed the needs of the American Episcopal Church, and laid the groundwork for negotiations with the Barbary States. His attention was not confined solely to foreign affairs. John Adams’s letters from London, laced with his trademark candor, demonstrate his ripening Federalist view of the new American government’s vulnerability and promise.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/papers-of-john-adams-volume-17-april-november-1785/oclc/872979643&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: WorldCat listing
Secondary URL: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674728950
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's listing
Access Model: Book
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9780674728950
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

The Adams Papers, The Adams Family Correspondence: Volume 12, March 1797-April 1798 (Book)
Title: The Adams Papers, The Adams Family Correspondence: Volume 12, March 1797-April 1798
Author: Adams Family
Editor: Sara Georgini
Editor: Sara Martin
Editor: C. James Taylor
Editor: Neal E. Millikan
Editor: Amanda A, Mathews
Editor: Hobson Woodward
Editor: Sara B. Sikes
Editor: Gregg L. Lint
Abstract: Volume 12 of Adams Family Correspondence, with 276 documents spanning from March 1797 through April 1798, opens with the inauguration of John Adams as president and closes just after details of the XYZ affair are made public in America. Through private networks of correspondence, the Adamses reveal both their individual concerns for the well-being of the nation and the depth of their public and political engagement with the republic. Abigail’s letters to friend and foe demonstrate the important role she played as an unofficial member of the administration. John Quincy and Thomas Boylston’s letters from The Hague, Paris, London, and finally Berlin offer keen observations about the political turmoil in France and its consequences, the shifting European landscape as a result of the war, and court life in Berlin following the coronation of Frederick William III. In the midst of crisis, the family’s domestic life and personal connections challenged and sustained them. The marriage of John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Johnson in London in July 1797 gave the family cause for celebration, while John’s appointment of John Quincy as U.S. minister to Prussia created a minor rift as the scrupulous younger Adams struggled with concerns about nepotism. Visits between the elder Adamses and their children Nabby and Charles in New York provided welcome distractions, even as John and Abigail worried about Nabby’s domestic situation. With the characteristic candor and perception expected from the Adamses, this volume again features forthright commentary from one family at the center of it all.
Year: 2015
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/adams-family-correspondence-march-1797-april-1798/oclc/893897041&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: WorldCat listing
Secondary URL: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674504660
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's listing
Access Model: Book
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9780674504660
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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