An archive of letters written by George Washington now will be available through the University Library's Electronic Text site -- the result of a collaborative effort between the University's E-Text Center and the Papers of George Washington, a modern scholarly editing project.
The Web site will make thousands of George Washington documents available for the general public to browse.
"We provide the technological expertise and guidance," said Matt Gibson, associate director of the Electronic Text Center. "The Papers of George Washington provide the content editorial expertise."
John C. Fitzpatrick, who served as assistant chief of the Manuscripts Division of the U.S. George Washington Bicentennial Commission during the early part of the 20th century, compiled the volumes that currently are available online.
"Fitzpatrick's 'Writings' are an incredible achievement by any standards," said Frank Grizzard, senior associate editor of the George Washington Papers.
Fitzpatrick was a key organizer in the movement to compile the papers about George Washington, assembling a total of 39 volumes about the famous figure.
The Fitzpatrick compilation only includes letters that George Washington himself wrote, whereas the Papers of George Washington contains Washington's personal and business letters, as well as the responses to those letters. "Fitzpatrick's volumes is a much more limited subset," Gibson said.
Grizzard said his organization's volumes are almost double that of the Fitzpatrick compilation.
"What Fitzpatrick does in two volumes, it takes two for us to do," he said.
The relationship between the Papers of George Washington and the University's E-text Center continues to evolve, leaders of both groups said.
Gibson said the two organizations are working collaboratively toward "global access to this corpus of important information," which will entail a full-access Web site.
Grizzard said the University will make the Letters of the Delegates of Congress available electronically in the upcoming weeks.
The public will be able to access these volumes online through the Papers of George Washington Web site and the University's E-Text Web site. The Papers cover the years between 1774 and 1789.
David Hoth, an assistant editor for the Papers of George Washington, said the plethora of historical materials gives historians an understanding of the views of the Founding Fathers.
"People of Washington's time wanted people to be able to read what they were doing, to have an understanding of the important things they were doing," Hoth said.
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