Contact: Charlotte Morford Scott, 
University of Virginia Library, 
[log in to unmask], 434-924-4254

MONUMENTAL COLLECTION OF GEORGE WASHINGTON 
LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE

An archive of historic documents and letters 
written by or on behalf of George Washington is 
now available online, thanks to a cooperative 
effort between the University of Virginia 
Library's Electronic Text Center and a 
documentary editing project, The Papers of 
George Washington.  The archive is the 
electronic edition of John C. Fitzpatrick's 
comprehensive study, _The Writings of George 
Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 
1745-1799_, a monumental collection of over 
17,400 letters and documents.

Fitzpatrick's work was originally prepared under 
the direction of the U.S. George Washington 
Bicentennial Commission, organized by Congress 
in 1932 to commemorate the two-hundredth 
anniversary of Washington's birth. The Library 
of Congress held the single largest collection 
of Washington manuscripts - more than 60,000 
separate documents - and Fitzpatrick, who had 
served as Assistant Chief of the Manuscripts 
Division for 30 years, assembled 37 volumes plus 
a two-volume index of the Washington papers.  
While the work was monumental for its time, 
there were still more papers than even 
Fitzpatrick was able to include.

Enter the Papers of George Washington, a 
documentary editing project housed at the 
University of Virginia Library.  The Washington 
Papers team joined the Library's E-Text Center 
to make Fitzpatrick's work available online 
while their own project, a 90-volume, updated 
and comprehensive presentation of Washington 
papers, is in process.  "Fitzpatrick's Writings 
are an incredible achievement by any standard," 
says Frank Grizzard, Senior Associate Editor of 
The George Washington Papers.  "But it presents 
only one side of the story, since letters sent 
to Washington are mentioned only infrequently, 
in the notes.  Using today's documentary editing 
procedures, we're producing a collection that is 
far more inclusive than was possible in 
Fitzpatrick's day.  Nonetheless, having his 
volumes online is a crucial bridge while we work 
on completing the 90-volumes of Washington 
papers." 

The Library of Congress supplied the SGML texts 
to the U.Va. Library's E-text Center, which in 
turn converted the text to XML for enhanced 
online searching and browsing functionality. 
"Our mission at the Electronic Text Center is to 
make humanities texts available to the world 
through the Internet," says Matt Gibson, 
Associate Director of the E-Text Center.  "We're 
delighted to be able to make the Library of 
Congress' Fitzpatrick volumes accessible to a 
global audience.  The collection represents a 
significant addition to current E-text materials 
and greatly enriches the University of Virginia 
Library's digital holdings."

Links for detailed information on:

· Fitzpatrick volumes online: 
http://etext.virginia.edu/washington/fitzpatrick/

· Electronic Text Center: 
http://etext.virginia.edu

· Papers of George Washington Project: 
http://www.gwpapers.virginia.edu

· University of Virginia Library: 
http://www.lib.virginia.edu

###

--
Frank E. Grizzard, Jr.
Associate Editor
Papers of George Washington
University of Virginia

[log in to unmask]
http://www.virginia.edu/gwpapers

HEY, MY BOOK IS OUT!
_George Washington: A Biographical Companion_
published by ABC-CLIO in May 2002. See my website:
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~feg3e/GWBio/

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