The data
This project is centered on the following four datasets.
Founders online
This project examined the entire corpus of 185.000 documents in the US National Archives’ Founders Online database. This database brings together the bulk of the edited and collected papers of seven so-called Founding Fathers from existing print editions as well as from additional online-only sources; a total of 294 print volumes. The archive is a rich digital collection of primary source documents from the most prominent figures in early American history, including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. The database also includes the papers of Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and the records of the Continental Congress. The documents are fully searchable and are available in both digital facsimile and transcribed formats.
-
For a description of the Founders Online project and its contents, see the About page and the complete list of volumes.
-
The data was scraped from the Founders Online website, and can be retrieved here. For more recently scraped data, go here.
Letters of Delegates to Congress
This collection of 25 volumes contains all public laws, congressional debates, and (to a limited extent) correspondence of members of Congress for the period of 1774-1789. Letters from delegates comprise most of the entries, although there are also (parts of) public papers, essays, and diaries. In total, ca. 15.000 documents are included. The data was scraped from the Library of Congress' American Memory project.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) TCP
The Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) TCP contains about 3100 keyed and searchable published texts from the Eighteenth Century Collections Online database (ca. 150.000 pages). The texts are based on the English Short Title Catalogue and are freely available to the public since 2014. It includes significant English-language printed in the United Kingdom during the 18th century.
Evans Early American Imprints (Evans) TCP
Evans-TCP contains about 5000 keyed and searchable published texts from the Early American Imprints online database (ca. 333.000 pages) and has been free to the public since 2014. The texts are based on the American Bibliography by Charles Evans and Roger Bristol's Supplement to Evans' American Bibliography. For the majority, the texts were published in America.