History Research Guide: Presidential Studies

A landmark in historical scholarship, The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition encompasses five separate series and the complete diaries. This digital edition offers the full content of 77 letterpress volumes in a single online publication.

The definitive record of the nation’s first great political family, The Adams Papers Digital Edition comprises John Adams’s complete diaries, selected legal papers, and the ongoing series of family correspondence and state papers.

Crucial to our nation’s history as author of the Declaration of Independence and third president, Thomas Jefferson was also a major figure in the Enlightenment, representing for Europeans the embodiment of the early nineteenth-century American mind.

The Papers of James Madison documents the life and work of one of the most important political and constitutional thinkers in our nation’s history. As chief author of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, secretary of state during the Louisiana Purchase, and the fourth president of the United States, Madison played a central role in the American founding and the growth of the early Republic.

n a long and varied career in government, politics, diplomacy, and war culminating in two terms as president, James Monroe played critical roles in seminal events in the American experience of revolution, independence, and nation‑building.

Following a brilliant military career that brought him to national attention and set in motion the “Old Hickory” legend, Andrew Jackson was elected president in 1828. From the beginning, he stamped the highest office with his wildly individualistic character, feuding bitterly not only with enemies but his own cabinet, calling for sweeping reforms in government, and committing to a strong union while at the same time effectively terminating the Bank of the United States.

Governor of Tennessee, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and eleventh president of the United States, James K. Polk was a fierce Jacksonian who expanded the nation’s boundaries more than anyone since Thomas Jefferson. He is remembered today as one of the strongest presidents of the nineteenth century.

Andrew Johnson's career is notable for more than his impeachment, with much to tell us about Civil War-era politics and the complexity of Reconstruction, through a trajectory that is one of the most compelling, and strange, in presidential history.

The Rotunda Digital Edition of Grant’s papers contains the contents of the letterpress
edition, including all editorial annotations, introductory essays, and appendices, and is fully searchable.

The Rotunda Digital Edition includes the complete contents of the landmark letterpress edition of the papers, with nearly 35,000 documents across 69 volumes.

The Public Papers of the President: Ronald Reagan, 1981-1989 contain the statements, speeches and papers released by the Office of the Press Secretary during the Reagan Presidency.

The President’s Daily Diary is a day-by-day record of Ronald Reagan’s eight years as President. It chronicles such activities as meetings, briefings, press conferences, telephone calls, photo sessions, meals, travel, and recreation

Online resource from the George H. W. Bush presidential library and museum.

Memcons (memoranda of face-to-face conversation) and telcons (memoranda of telephone conversation) between President George Bush and world leaders.

The Public Papers of the Presidents, which is compiled and published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

The Public Papers of the Presidents, which is compiled and published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

The Public Papers of the Presidents, which is compiled and published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)