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Presidential Papers at the Library of Congress

By Design: Frederick Law Olmsted & Associates

Frederick Law Olmsted is best known for designing iconic American greenspaces like Central Park in New York City. Many of the parks, estates, residential communities, campuses, grounds of buildings, and gathering places he, his associates, and his successors designed remain in use today. But Olmsted's interests and experiences extended far beyond landscape architecture and urban planning. Explore Olmsted's nineteenth-century world by transcribing documents from the Library’s Manuscript Division holdings.
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Rough Rider to Bull Moose: Letters to Theodore Roosevelt

In this campaign of President Theodore Roosevelt's (1858-1919) incoming mail, discover what Roosevelt and his correspondents had to say about the issues of their day, and help make the subjects addressed in what Roosevelt called his “great mass of papers” more accessible. His correspondents ranged from heads of states to average Americans, and covered a subjects as diverse as politics and political reform, wars and military policy, foreign relations, books and literature, family life, pets, the natural world, history, simplified spelling, cattle ranching, coal strikes, social functions, camping trips and safaris.

Volunteer transcriptions now enable discovery and access for portions of this collection. Search them.
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Herencia: Centuries of Spanish Legal Documents

Legal documents shed light on what societies and individuals value, and the struggles, hopes, and triumphs of people across the societal spectrum. You can transcribe documents written in Spanish, Latin, and Catalan between 1300 and 1800, and open the legal history of Spain and Spanish colonies to greater discovery. Help us bring this rare collection to life!

Los documentos jurídicos iluminan lo que la sociedades e individuos valoran y las batallas, esperanzas y triunfos de personas a través de todo el espectro social. Puedes transcribir documentos escritos en español, latín y catalán desde los años 1300 a los 1800 y dar entrada a la historia jurídica de España y de sus colonias para mayor descubrimiento. Ayúdanos a traer a la luz esta colección de materiales únicos.

Volunteer transcriptions now enable discovery and access for portions of this collection. Search them.
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"To Be Preserved": The Correspondence of James A. Garfield

Although an assassin’s bullet shortened his presidential administration to just six months in 1881, James A. Garfield (1831-1881) left an impressive archive of his forty-nine years, including extensive correspondence with family, friends, professional colleagues, and the public. Garfield’s own letters to intimates recorded his thoughts on his private life and public activities, whereas the correspondence Garfield received reflected the interests of both individuals in his inner circle and the public at large. Discover the wide range of subjects addressed in the correspondence of one of America’s more remarkable, but lesser-known presidents.
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Sheet Music of the Musical Theater

This campaign features more than 16,000 pieces of sheet music published between 1880 and 1922. The piano-vocal selections come from musicals, revues and operettas primarily of the American and British stage. Transcribers will encounter songs by some of the best-known composers and lyricists in American popular music history as well as notable trailblazing artists deserving of wider recognition. The sheet music provides a unique and valuable lens for observing culture and history between 1880 and 1922 through both lyrical content and intriguing cover art.
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Woman of the World: Political Thinker Hannah Arendt

Political theorist and cultural critic Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) fled from her native Germany and occupied France and came to the United States as a Jewish refugee from the Nazi regime. She made a life as a New Yorker and became one of the world’s most prominent public intellectuals. Letters and notes in her papers document the personal side of Arendt as a wife and family member, a friend, mentor, and colleague. Correspondence, syllabi, speeches, research materials, and writings convey the public Arendt, a brilliant writer, teacher, activist, and thinker who interacted with a who’s who of fellow literati and intellectuals of her time. The woman who offered deep analysis of human nature, political systems, power and rights to her students and readers left us lasting works including Eichmann in Jerusalem, The Origins of Totalitarianism, and The Life of the Mind.
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Civil War Justice: The Correspondence of Joseph Holt, Judge Advocate General

Experience many of the most important issues and events of the Civil War era through the correspondence of Joseph Holt (1807-1894) while he served as a newspaper editor, lawyer, and political figure in Kentucky, and United States postmaster general, secretary of war, and judge advocate general of the United States Army (1862-1875). The sectional crisis, the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, and Reconstruction are all played out in Holt’s papers, as his proximity to power prompted letters from well-known figures, the public, and his own divided family.
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Clara Barton: "Angel of the Battlefield"

Nurse, educator, philanthropist, lecturer, and founder of the American Red Cross, Clara Barton (1821-1912) was one of the most prolific, active, and beloved women of her time. Discover how she achieved so much despite widespread prejudice against women.

Volunteer transcriptions now enable discovery and access for portions of this collection. Search them.
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