Primary Research

newspapers & magazines • unpublished manuscripts • government documents • Digital Philadelphia

Government Documents

Federal • Pennsylvania & Philadelphia

Wait, don't skip this page! So, you're probably thinking there is no way you could possibly be interested in government documents. But you would be making a grave mistake, and the dragon might have to torch your socks as a result. Writing away for more than two centuries now, the US government is the most prolific author in recent history and no doubt the one with the most wide-ranging interests (it took pictures and made maps, too, among other things). Pennsylvania and Philadelphia have also tossed in their two cents.

[The dragon thanks Lynn Williamson of the Government Documents department for help with resources at the Free Library.]

Federal Government

A little description first and then the tools below the box.

U.S. Serial Set The U.S. Serial Set is the record of all Congressional publications (not unpublished materials). This covers an absolutely enormous range of material from American history, not least of all because Congress has discussed just about everything you could imagine. The materials include proposed legislation, some hearings, investigative reports, regular reports from executive agencies to Congress, some cool (and not so cool) maps, and many, many other things. You will find things on Philadelphia, but this is also a good resource to keep in mind if you're chained to Philadelphia but want to do research on other parts of the country and world. You can read more about the serial set and the related earlier collection, the American State Papers (and find a search function for 1774-1875) here: http://rs6.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwss.html The government distributes the U.S. Serial Set to designated libraries around the country; they are known as Federal Depository Libraries. The Free Library of Philadelphia is one of these libraries, which receives about 40 percent of such documents. One obligation of Federal Depository Libraries is that they must be accessible to the general public, even if they are private libraries; they are not obligated to share their digital tools and collections, however. Since the mid-1990s, the federal government has made its published documents available digitally; the government and private firms (LexisNexis, Readex, Google) are also in the process of digitizing earlier documents. Those that are not digital are often available in microfilm or microfiche. National Archives & Records Administration (NARA) Unlike the U.S. Serial Set, the National Archives traffics in unpublished federal records. Some of these records are available digitally but only a wee fraction at this point; the archivists like to point out that their paper collections could circle the earth 57 times (so far). In addition to the major National Archives in Washington (and the newer Archives II in College Park, which is probably more likely to have the records you want), NARA has several regional archives and the presidential libraries. Philadelphia hosts the Mid-Atlantic branch of the National Archives, and you can find it at 9th & Chestnut (look for the little obscure door on the Chestnut Street side). This branch holds records from Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia, Maryland, and Virginia; the records range from federal court cases (Record Group 21) to the Philadelphia Navy Yard (Record Group 181) to road construction (Record Group 30). I'll put in a special plug for the court cases, which can be unexpectedly rich: in addition to the testimony and verdicts, the records can contain depositions (interviews) and other historical materials collected as exhibits for the trial. To see a description of the Mid-Atlantic holdings, look here: http://www.archives.gov/midatlantic/holdings/. In addition to the traditional records of NARA, the Mid-Atlantic branch subscribes to Ancestry.com/ (read about it here: http://search.ancestry.com/search/) and Footnote.com (http://www.footnote.com/), two private databases with large and expanding collections (US census, maps, city directories, local histories, and much more. Having started for genealogists, Ancestry.com is particularly helpful to find people, but it's grown much larger than that. Footnote.com has an agreement with the National Archives to digitize some of their documents (http://www.footnote.com/documents/). You need to use these resources in the archives.

Electronic tools to find federal records

Unpublished

National Archives: Archival Research Catalog
http://www.archives.gov/research/arc

It's an enormous (and incomplete) job simply to create a workable digital index of the National Archives' enormous collections--and the Archival Research Catalog covers about two-thirds of the collections; so be sure to ask the archivists for help if you don't find what you need (they expect to be asked for help; don't be shy). It's also a good idea to become acquainted with the range of holdings by browsIng the different Record Groups, just for the fun of it.

Published

Drexel's electronic databases:
Don't hesitate to ask the librarians for help with these, by the way.

• LexisNexis Congressional (serial set, etc)
• LexisNexis Academic Universe (legal section)
• U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs
• Making of Modern Law
• U.S. Congressional Documents Library

[If you're in the law school, you are part of a privileged elite with access to a few more databases than mere humanities mortals. For a ridiculously exorbitant fee, the dragon might consider helping you, though you'd be better off consulting the law librarians.]

Free Library's databases:
http://www.library.phila.gov

The Free Library website can be a little confusing; the easiest way to get to the electronic databases is to avoid the "cloud" search. Once on the library's homepage, look at the blue Find box and click on the databases link, which will bring you to this page with the list of their databases (and this page is worth a close look, quite aside from government docs): http://search.library.phila.gov/advSearch.cfm. Click on the relevant box.

Only accessible to users inside a Free Library branch:

• American State Papers/ U.S. Congressional Serial Set
• LexisNexis Congressional Universe
• LexisNexis Statistical

Available on-line from outside the library (with your library & PIN numbers)

• Declassified Documents Index
• CQ Public Affairs Index
• CQ Researcher

Google
Google is another place to find some government documents; they are not far along yet in that digitization project, but you might get lucky.

Print Index
This index specifically cover documents not available in the U.S. Serial Set. The Free Library has both volumes; Drexel's law library has the first.

• CIS Index to U.S. Executive Branch Documents, 1789-1909
• CIS Index to U.S. Executive Branch Documents, 1910-1932

As you might suspect, these covers many documents from a variety of executive branch agencies (Departments of Commerce, Justice, State, etc).

Edited collections
Take a look at (non-electronic) edited collections in which historians weed through documents and aim to publish the more significant ones. Two examples:

• The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, ed. Arthur S. Link (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1966-1994).
• The Papers of Dwight D. Eisenhower, many editors (Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1970-).

U.S. Census & related statistics

U.S. Census Bureau

The U.S. Census Bureau's website has a wide variety of reports going right back to the 1790 census. The census counts people, but it also has a wide range of maps and economic information.
http://www.census.gov/history/index.html

This link takes you to the bureau's list of the completed final reports of each census.
http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/decennial/index.htm

Ancestry.com, Footnote.com
The National Archives provides access to these two private databases from the terminals inside the archives. Particularly in Ancestry.com, you can see scanned versions of the original U.S. Census manuscripts. The information collected by the census takers varied over the decades, ranging from ages and numbers of people in a household to fuller descriptions of family members, including birth years and places, race, sex, marital status, and so forth. Ancestry.com also contains a variety of other sources worth exploring, including smaller newspapers, local histories, and other genealogy tools. Footnote.com has a partnership with the National Archives and have made many of the more famous government documents on-line.

Historical Statistics of the United States
Drexel subscribes to this electronic database.

Pennsylvania & Philadelphia

City Archives
http://www.phila.gov/Records/Archives/Archives.html

The City Archives contains the official records of the City of Philadelphia and its agencies. That means the Court of Common Pleas, City Planning Commission, Fairmount Park Commission, Department of the Receiver of Taxes, and many more. As you might know, Philadelphia is quite an old city by American standards, and many of the earliest documents are in the City Archives' collections. Some of their photographs are on-line, as described by the dragon in the Digital Philadelphia section, but most of the city's records are paper or microfilm, and you'll have to visit. Luckily, the City Archives is nearly on Drexel's campus and easily accessible (3101 Market Street).

Free Library's Government Documents
http://www.library.phila.gov

In addition to the federal records described above, the Free Library's government documents section also holds many records related to the state and city governments.

Pennsylvania
Like the federal government, the state of Pennsylvania has a Documents Depository program and (usually) sends copies of state publications to the Free Library. You can find:

• legislative histories
• House and Senate Journals
• documents of state agencies

Philadelphia

• Philadelphia Code and Ordinances
• documents of city agencies
• various materials since the early 1800s, including, for example, much on City Hall