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About the Family Letters Project
The Family Letters Project is a companion to the letterpress volumes of the Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, published by Princeton University Press. The documents archived on this site provide full text-searchable transcriptions of a rich body of correspondence between Jefferson’s immediate and extended family. The letters, and related documents, provide personal insights into aspects of Jefferson’s life that are unlikely to appear in his own writings. Falling in the years between 1809 and 1873, with a concentration on the years between 1809 and 1835, many of the letters are authored by women and contain vivid accounts of domestic and social life in nineteenth-century Virginia. Few of these documents have ever been published, and the Project seeks to make them accessible to the public through this electronic edition.
This archive will continue to grow as more letters and documents are transcribed.
Statement of Textual Policy
Inclusion and Naming Conventions
The Family Letters Project uses an inclusive definition of "family," including not only Thomas Jefferson's immediate family, but also the extended kin networks common among elite Virginians of the period. For example, Jefferson's longtime friend Elizabeth Trist was the grandmother of Nicholas P. Trist, who served as Jefferson's secretary and also married his granddaughter Virginia Jefferson Randolph. Elizabeth Trist's letters, as well as those of other members of the Trist family, are included in the electronic edition. This network will expand as the website grows.
Regardless of the date of the document, the married surnames of the correspondents will be included in the heading and title. These married surnames will appear within parenthesis until after the date of marriage has passed. For example, Ellen W. Randolph Coolidge is identified consistently as Ellen W. Randolph (Coolidge) until after May 1825 when her name appears without parenthesis. Honorifics such as “Jr.”, “Sr.”, and “III” have been omitted. Where full names are identical, a parenthetical delimiter (preferably life dates) is given following the name.
Editorial Procedures
The transcriptions contained in this electronic edition conform to the standards set by the Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series. Original spelling, capitalization, and punctuation is retained as written. Some so-called slips of the pen are corrected, but the original reading is recorded in a textual note. Gaps, doubtful readings of illegible or damaged text, and wording supplied from other versions or by editorial conjecture are explained in the source note or in numbered textual notes. Editorial conjectures of illegible or damaged text appear within square brackets, and where conjectures cannot safely be made, a gap is indicated by [. . .]. Datelines for letters are consistently printed at the head of the text, with a comment in the source note when they have been moved. Each author's additions appear in green and deletions are in red and struck through. Address information, endorsements, and other notes, when they appear, are quoted or described in the source note rather than reproduced in the document proper.
All documents and transcriptions undergo an intensive review process before they are posted to the website. Editorial annotation, including information about the type of text and the repository location of the original manuscript, appear within the source note at the foot of the document. When available, links to color scans of the original document are provided.
Text Types and Repositories
Abbreviations for text types and repositories appear in notes at the end of each letter:
| Text Types | |
| Dft | draft (usually a composition or rough draft; multiple drafts, when identifiable as such, are designated “2d Dft,” etc.) |
| Dupl | duplicate |
| MS | manuscripts (arbitrarily applied to most documents other than letters) |
| PoC | polygraph copy |
| PrC | press copy |
| RC | recipient’s copy |
| SC | stylograph copy |
| FC | file copy (applied to all contemporary copies retained by the author or his/her agents) |
| Tr | transcript (applied to all contemporary and later copies except file copies; period of transcription, unless clear by implication, will be given when known) |
| Repositories | |||
| CSmH | Huntington Library, San Marino, CA | ||
| DLC | Library of Congress, Washington, DC | ||
| DNA | National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC | ||
| MHi | Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, MA Coolidge Collection of Thomas Jefferson Manuscripts, unless otherwise noted | ||
| MoSHi | Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, MO | ||
| NcD | Duke University, Durham, NC | ||
| NcU | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC | ||
| NHi | New-York Historical Society, New York City | ||
| NjMoHP | Morristown National Historical Park, Morristown, NJ | ||
| NjP | Princeton University, Princeton, NJ | ||
| NN | New York Public Library, New York City | ||
| NNPM | Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City | ||
| PHi | Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA | ||
| PPAmP | American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA | ||
| PPCP | College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA | ||
| THi | Tennessee Historical Society, Nashville, TN | ||
| ViCMRL | Thomas Jefferson Library, Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc., Charlottesville, VA | ||
| Vi | Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA | ||
| ViHi | Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, VA | ||
| ViU | University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, VA | ||
| ViW | College of William and Mary Library, Williamsburg, VA | ||
Copyright Information
The Family Letters Project cannot grant permission to use or reproduce scans of letters, portraits, or any other media on our web site that is protected by copyright law. Please direct inquiries regarding the use or reproduction of materials to the appropriate copyright holder. Repository information is located in annotation notes at the foot of each document.
See the United States Copyright Office page for further information. http://www.copyright.gov/
How to Cite
The location of the original text from which the transcription was made will appear in the annotation at the foot of the letter or document. Contact the repository noted to access the original. The following is an example of how to cite transcriptions of letters from the Family Letters electronic edition.
Coolidge, Ellen Wayles Randolph. Letter to Martha Jefferson Randolph. 23 March 1826. Transcript of manuscript, Correspondence of Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. Family Letters Project, Thomas Jefferson Foundation, 2006. http://familypapers.dataformat.com
The Family Letters Project is grateful for the support of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, and The Pew Charitable Trusts.