Research Databases
Note: Resources marked "Foundation users only" can only be accessed from computers within the Thomas Jefferson Foundation network or by users who have logged into our remote access server.
OCLC FirstSearch - FirstSearch provides access to a group of databases, including WorldCat, ArticleFirst, and PapersFirst.
Primary Source Materials
Published Materials
American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I (Foundation users only)
Full text of 15,000 broadsides printed between 1820 and 1900 and 15,000 pieces of ephemera printed between 1760 and 1900.American History and Culture Online: Sabin Americana, 1500-1926 (Foundation users only) Full-text access to more than 29,000 works about the Americas, published around the world between 1500 and 1926.
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans (1639-1800) (Foundation users only) Full-text access to more than 36,000 American books, pamphlets and broadsides published between 1639 and 1800.
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker (1801-1819) (Foundation users only)
Full-text access to over 36,000 American books, pamphlets and broadsides published between 1801 and 1819.Early English Books Online (Foundation users only) Full-text access to "virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700."
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (Foundation users only)
Full-text access to hundreds of thousands of works published in the U.K. and the Americas during the 18th century.The Making of the Modern World: The Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature (Foundation users only) Full-text access to more than 61,000 books and periodicals published between 1450 and 1850 relating to economics and related topics - e.g. trade, manufacturing, slavery, politics, etc.
Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive, Part I - Debates Over Slavery and Abolition (Foundation users only)
Full-text access to more than 7,000 books and pamphlets, 80 newspaper and periodical titles, and a dozen major manuscript collections (including the American Colonization Society Papers) dealing with the abolitionist movement, arguments for and against slavery, colonization, and other related topics.
Newspapers
America's Historical Newspapers (Foundation users only) Full-text access to thousands of American newspapers from 1690-1900.
17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers (Foundation users only) Full-text access to approximately 1,270 newspaper titles, pamphlets and broadsides published during the 17th and 18th centuries in the United Kingdom, mostly in London. (Cross-searchable with 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers, 19th Century British Library Newspapers, 19th Century U.S. Newspapers, and 19th Century UK Periodicals in Gale's NewsVault interface.)
19th Century British Library Newspapers (Foundation users only) Full-text access to 48 national and regional newspapers published in the United Kingdom during the 19th Century. (Cross-searchable with 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers, 19th Century U.S. Newspapers, and 19th Century UK Periodicals in Gale's NewsVault interface.)
19th Century United States Newspapers (Foundation users only) Full-text access to a range of urban and rural newspapers published in the United States throughout the 19th century. (Cross-searchable with 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers, 19th Century British Library Newspapers, and 19th Century UK Periodicals in Gale's NewsVault interface.)
Access NewspaperARCHIVE
Millions of searchable newspaper pages from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Includes newspapers from the United States, Europe, the UK, Ireland, Japan, South Africa, Jamaica, and Canada.(Foundation users only)Gale NewsVault (Foundation users only) A single search platform for 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers, 19th Century British Library Newspapers, 19th Century U.S. Newspapers, and 19th Century UK Periodicals.
Personal Papers
Papers of Thomas Jefferson Digital Edition
(Foundation users only)
Includes volumes 1-33 (covering 1760 to April 1801) of the Papers of Thomas Jefferson published by Princeton University Press, and volumes 1-4 of the Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series. Other volumes will become available as more material is digitized and new volumes are published.Thomas Jefferson Papers, 1606-1827 (Library of Congress)
Scanned black-and-white images of most documents in the Thomas Jefferson Papers collection at the Library of Congress. Transcriptions are provided for some documents.Thomas Jefferson Papers (Massachusetts Historical Society)
Color images of selected documents in the Coolidge Collection of Thomas Jefferson Papers at Massachusetts Historical Society, including a draft of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson's Farm and Garden Books, a large collection of architectural drawings, and Jefferson's draft of Notes on the State of Virginia. Full transcriptions are available for the Farm and Garden Books.Thomas Jefferson Papers, 1761-1931 (Swem Library, College of William and Mary)
Swem Library holds a collection of approximately 700 Jefferson letters and other documents, which have been digitized.
*See also Researching Thomas Jefferson: Primary Sources
The Gilder Lehrman Institute owns approximately 300 Jefferson letters. Images and transcriptions are available online.
Family Letters Project
Search the correspondence of Thomas Jefferson's extended family.Nicholas Philip Trist Papers, 1765-1903
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill holds a collection of approximately 6,000 documents from Nicholas Philip Trist, Thomas Jefferson's grandson-in-law and personal secretary, and his extended family. Large portions of this collection have now been digitized.
American Founding Era Collection
(Foundation users only)
Simultaneously search the Adams Papers, Dolley Madison, and George Washington Digital Editions (listed individually below).Adams Papers Digital Edition
(Foundation users only)
Includes all volumes of the Adams Papers published by Harvard University Press to date.
Dolley Madison Digital Edition
(Foundation users only)
Search an ever-growing database of Dolley Madison's letters.Papers of George Washington Digital Edition
(Foundation users only)
Includes all of the Papers of George Washington, published by the University Press of Virginia, to date.Papers of James Madison Digital Edition (Foundation users only)
By July 2010, this database will include all material published in the letterpress Papers of James Madison volumes through 2009.
Government and Public Documents
American Memory (Library of Congress)
Lost Records Localities Database
Century of Lawmaking
U.S. Congressional Documents and debates, 1774-1873
Biographical & Genealogical Sources
American National Biography (Foundation users only) Help
Ancestry Library Edition (Foundation users only)
AskART.com
Biography and directory on American artistsBiographical Directory of the United States Congress
Dictionary of National Biography (Foundation users only)
Brief biographies of more than 56,000 people relevant to British history, provided by Oxford University Press.HeritageQuest Online (Foundation users only)
Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts Craftsman Database
New England Historic Genealogical Society
(Foundation users only)Virginia Runaways (Virginia Center for Digital History)
Runaway slave advertisements from 18th-century Virginia newspapers
Find Books, Journals, and Manuscripts
American Periodicals Series Online
Search the full text of more than 1,000 American magazines and journals published between 1740 and 1900.
(Foundation users only)19th Century UK Periodicals (Foundation users only) Full-text access to nearly 600 magazines, journals and other periodicals published in the United Kingdom during the 19th Century. Includes Series I: New Readerships and Series II: Empire. (Cross-searchable with 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers, 19th Century British Library Newspapers, and 19th Century U.S. Newspapers in Gale's NewsVault interface.)
Bibliographic Database of the Conservation Information Network
Index to American Botanical Literature
JSTOR (Foundation users only)
HelpNAIL
NARA Archival Information LocatorNational Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections
Smithsonian Institution: Archival Manuscript and Photographic Catalog
descriptions of papers, oral history, manuscripts, images...Past Portal (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)
HelpThomas Jefferson Bibliography (Frank Shuffelton)
Virginia Heritage
Guides to Manuscript & Archival Collections in Virginia
General / Reference
Art & Architecture Thesaurus (Getty Foundation)
Bartleby.com
encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, quotations, reference works, King James Bible...Chicago Manual of Style
Foundation users only.Electronic Enlightenment "...unrivalled access to the web of correspondence between the greatest thinkers and writers of the long 18th century and their families and friends, bankers and booksellers, patrons and publishers. "
Encyclopedia Mythica
encyclopedia on mythology, folklore, and legendFind It Virginia
Search indexes and full text with your Virginia public library cardGreat Buildings Online
digital images of 18th century American ArchitectureOxford African American Studies Center
Foundation users only.Oxford Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment
Foundation users only.Oxford English Dictionary Online
The world's premier historical dictionary of the English Language. (Foundation users only.)Questia
Full access to Foundation users only.
Discussion
A one-stop shop for access to research databases of 18th and 19th century books, pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, documentary papers, and genealogical resources. I have access to hundreds and thousands of period documents right from my desktop at work! It’s amazing what’s possible. I can’t imagine doing without any of these vital resources for my research today.
This is a fantastic collection of resources--a one-stop shop, really--of Jefferson-related research material. In the course of helping to answer questions from visitors, I especially use the Papers of Thomas Jefferson Digital Edition and JSTOR. The former is great for getting TJ's exact words, and the latter is a great source of journal articles written about him (and many other topics). The other primary source material, such as period newspapers, is endlessly fascinating as well.