Digital Collections

The Library of Congress holds the papers of twenty-three presidents from George Washington to Calvin Coolidge, all of which have been digitized and are now available online. Additionally, the Library's digital collections contain historic films, sound recordings, newspapers, photographs, and other primary source materials related to presidential history.

Digital Collections

Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
The papers of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), lawyer, representative from Illinois, and sixteenth president of the United States, contain approximately 40,550 documents dating from 1774 to 1948, although most of the collection spans from the 1850s through Lincoln’s presidency (1861-1865). Roughly half of the collection, more than 20,000 documents, comprising 62,000 images, as well as transcriptions of approximately 10,000 documents, is online.
Andrew Jackson Papers
The Andrew Jackson Papers is one of twenty-three presidential collections in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. The Jackson archival collection contains more than 26,000 items dating from 1767 to 1874. Included are memoranda, journals, speeches, military records, land deeds, and miscellaneous printed matter, as well as correspondence reflecting Jackson’s personal life and career as a politician, military officer, president, slave holder and property owner. The bulk of the materials date from 1785, in the era when Jackson moved to North Carolina to study law, to Jackson's death at the Hermitage in Tennessee in 1845.
Andrew Johnson Papers
The papers of vice president, senator, and representative Andrew Johnson (1808-1875), who became the seventeenth president of the Unites States in 1865 after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, consist of 40,000 items (63,710 images), most of which were digitized from 55 reels of previously produced microfilm. Spanning the years 1783-1947, with the bulk dating 1865-1869, the collection contains correspondence, memoranda, diaries, messages and speeches, courts-martial and amnesty records, financial records, lists, newspaper clippings, printed matter, scrapbooks, photographs, and other papers relating chiefly to Johnson’s presidency. Subjects include the Civil War, National Union Party, Republican Party, Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and assassination, Reconstruction, and Johnson’s presidential administration and impeachment.
Benjamin Harrison Papers
The papers of U.S. senator from Indiana and U.S. Army officer Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901), who became the twenty-third president of the United States, consist of 69,600 items (178,479 images), most of which were digitized from 151 reels of previously produced microfilm. Spanning the years 1780 to 1948, with the bulk dating from 1853 to 1901, the collection contains correspondence, speeches, articles, notebooks in shorthand, legal papers, financial records, scrapbooks, memorials, printed matter, memorabilia, and other papers. The collection covers every aspect of Harrison’s life and career.
Calvin Coolidge Papers
The papers of John Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), thirtieth president of the United States, consist of approximately 179,000 documents (218,513 images), which have been digitized from 190 reels of previously reproduced microfilm. Held in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, these papers constitute the largest collection of original Coolidge documents in the world. The collection contains incoming correspondence with attachments, notes, carbon copies of outgoing letters from Coolidge or one of his secretaries, telegraph messages, appointment books, and names and addresses of White House guests.
Chester Alan Arthur Papers
The papers of Chester Alan Arthur (1829-1886), who became the twenty-first president of the United States in 1881 after James A. Garfield’s assassination, consist of 4,400 items (7,667 images), most of which were digitized from 10 reels of previously produced microfilm. Spanning the years 1843-1960, with the bulk dating from 1870 to 1888, the collection contains correspondence, financial papers, scrapbooks, clippings, and other papers relating to Arthur’s presidency, his service as collector of customs for the Port of New York, and his work with the New York Republican State Committee.
Franklin Pierce Papers
The papers of Franklin Pierce (1804-1869), army officer, representative and senator from New Hampshire, and fourteenth president of the United States, contain approximately 2,350 items dating from 1820 to 1869. They include correspondence, a photostatic copy of a diary kept by Pierce while serving in the Mexican War, drafts of Pierce’s messages to Congress, and an engraved portrait. Pierce’s correspondence relates chiefly to his service in the Mexican War, public affairs, and national politics.
George Washington Papers
The papers of army officer and first U.S. president George Washington (1732-1799) held in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress constitute the largest collection of original Washington papers in the world. They consist of approximately 77,000 items accumulated by Washington between 1745 and 1799, including correspondence, diaries, and financial and military records. The collection documents Washington’s childhood education, his first career as a surveyor, his experiences as a militia colonel during the French and Indian War, his election as a Virginia delegate to the first and second Continental Congresses, his role as general of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, his presidency of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, his two terms as president (1789-1797), and his retirement.
Grover Cleveland Papers
The papers of New York governor and lawyer Grover Cleveland (1837-1908), who became the twenty-second and twenty-fourth president of the United States, consist of 108,200 items (192,602 images), most of which were digitized from 164 reels of previously produced microfilm. Spanning the years 1743 to 1945, with the bulk dating from 1885 to 1908, the collection contains correspondence, diaries, messages to Congress, speeches, writings, printed matter, and other papers relating chiefly to Cleveland’s presidencies and presidential campaigns. Most of the collection relates to Cleveland’s first presidential administration (1885-1889). Other subjects include Cleveland’s second presidential administration, presidential elections, and Democratic Party politics.
James A. Garfield Papers
The papers of U.S. president, army officer, lawyer, and educator James A. Garfield (1831-1881) consist of approximately 80,000 items (200,083 images), most of which were digitized from 177 reels of previously produced microfilm. Spanning the years 1775-1889, with the bulk dating from 1850 to 1881, the collection contains correspondence, diaries, speeches, records of Garfield's Civil War military service, legal records, genealogical material, college notebooks, tributes, printed matter, scrapbooks, and other material relating primarily to Garfield's career and death.
James Buchanan and Harriet Lane Johnston Papers
The papers of James Buchanan (1791-1868), representative and senator of Pennsylvania, secretary of state, and fifteenth president of the United States, and those of his niece and White House hostess Harriet Lane Johnston (1830-1903) contain approximately 1,600 items dating from 1825 to 1887. James Buchanan’s papers include correspondence, notes, drafts of remarks, commissions, land patents and other papers relating chiefly to Buchanan’s career in the United States Senate, as secretary of state, and as minister to Great Britain prior to his presidency.
James K. Polk Papers
The papers of James K. Polk (1795-1849), governor of Tennessee, representative from Tennessee, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and eleventh president of the United States, contain approximately 20,500 items dating from 1775 to 1891, with the bulk falling in the period 1830-1849. The collection includes correspondence, presidential letterbooks, diaries, speeches and messages, account and memorandum books, family papers, financial and legal records, printed matter, portraits, and other papers relating chiefly to Polk’s political career in Tennessee and on the national level. The papers document struggles during Andrew Jackson’s administration over the Bank of the United States, Nullification Crisis, and internal improvements. For the period of Polk’s presidency, the papers cover the annexation of Texas, war with Mexico, the Oregon question, and the acquisition of the territories of New Mexico and California.
James Madison Papers, 1723 to 1859
James Madison (1751-1836) is one of 23 presidents whose papers are held in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. The Madison Papers consist of approximately 12,000 items, spanning the period 1723-1859, captured in some 37,714 digital images. They document the life of the man who came to be known as the “Father of the Constitution” through correspondence, personal notes, drafts of letters and legislation, an autobiography, legal and financial documents, and his notes on the 1787 federal Constitutional Convention. The papers cover Madison’s years as a college student; as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Continental Congress, and Confederation Congress; as a delegate to the 1787 federal Constitutional Convention and the Virginia ratification convention of 1788; his terms in the House of Representatives, as secretary of state, and as president of the United States.
James Monroe Papers
The James Monroe Papers at the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress consist of approximately 5,200 items dating from 1758 to 1839. Monroe (1758–1831) was the fifth president of the United States, and one of 23 presidents whose papers are at the Library of Congress. Monroe's papers document his presidency and also his prior careers as secretary of state, secretary of war, delegate to the United States Continental Congress, diplomat, and governor of Virginia.
John Tyler Papers
The John Tyler Papers, one of twenty-three presidential collections in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, contains more than 1,400 items dating from 1691 to 1918, most of which fall between 1757 and 1918. The collection is made up primarily of correspondence, including letters and copies of letters to or from Tyler (1790-1862), a governor and U.S. representative and senator from Virginia, who served as vice president under William Henry Harrison before becoming the tenth president of the United States upon Harrison’s death in 1841.
Martin Van Buren Papers
The Martin Van Buren Papers, one of twenty-three presidential collections in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, contains more than 6,000 items dating from 1787 to circa 1910. The bulk of the material dates from the 1820s, when Van Buren (1782-1862) was a U.S. senator from New York, through his service as secretary of state and vice president in the Andrew Jackson administrations (1829-1837), to his own presidency (1837-1841) and through the decade thereafter when he made unsuccessful bids to return to the presidency with the Democratic and Free Soil parties.
Millard Fillmore Papers
The papers of Millard Fillmore (1800-1874), educator, U.S. representative from New York, vice president, and thirteenth president of the United States, contain approximately thirty-five items spanning the years 1839-1925, with the bulk dating from 1839 to 1870. The collection includes correspondence relating primarily to political issues such as slavery, Compromise of 1850, Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska Act, John Brown's 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and congressional politics.
Theodore Roosevelt Papers
The papers of Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), public official, author, decorated veteran of the Spanish-American War, governor of New York, and president of the United States (1901-1909), consist of approximately 276,000 documents (roughly 461,000 images), most of which were digitized from 485 reels of previously reproduced microfilm. Held in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, these papers constitute the largest collection of original Roosevelt documents in the world. The collection contains personal, family, and official correspondence, diaries, book drafts, articles, speeches, and scrapbooks, dating from 1759 to 1993 with the bulk of material from the period between 1878 and 1919.
Thomas Jefferson Papers, 1606 to 1827
The papers of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), diplomat, architect, scientist, and third president of the United States, held in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, consist of approximately 25,000 items, making it the largest collection of original Jefferson documents in the world. Dating from the early 1760s through his death in 1826, the Thomas Jefferson Papers consist mainly of his correspondence, but they also include his drafts of the Declaration of Independence, drafts of Virginia laws; his fragmentary autobiography; the small memorandum books he used to record his spending; the pages on which for many years he daily recorded the weather; many charts, lists, tables, and drawings recording his scientific and other observations; notes; maps; recipes; ciphers; locks of hair; wool samples; and more.
Warren G. Harding-Carrie Fulton Phillips Correspondence
This correspondence (240 items; 1910-1924) consists primarily of letters written by President Harding (1865-1923), before and during his tenure as a U.S. senator, to his paramour Carrie Fulton Phillips (1873-1960), wife of a Marion, Ohio, store owner. Also included are drafts and notes for correspondence written by Phillips during her approximately fifteen-year relationship with Harding, as well as a handful of other related items.
William H. Taft Papers
The papers of William Howard Taft (1857-1930), twenty-seventh president of the United States and tenth chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, consist of approximately 676,000 documents (785,977 images), which have been digitized from 658 reels of previously reproduced microfilm. Held in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, these papers constitute the largest collection of original Taft documents in the world. The collection contains family papers, personal and official correspondence, presidential and judicial files, speeches and addresses, legal files and notebooks, business and estate papers, engagement calendars, guest lists, scrapbooks, clippings, printed matter, memorabilia, and photographs dating from 1784 to 1973, with the bulk of the material dated 1880-1930.
William Henry Harrison Papers
The William Henry Harrison Papers, one of twenty-three presidential collections in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, contains approximately 1,000 items dating from 1734 to 1939, with the bulk dated from 1812 to 1841. Harrison (1773-1841), an army officer, representative, and senator from Ohio, served as the ninth president of the United States. His collection includes a letterbook, 1812-1813, correspondence, and military papers stemming mostly from his military and political career in the Northwest Territory, his service in Indian wars and the War of 1812, his time as territorial governor of Indiana Territory (1800-1812), and his role as Whig Party candidate in the unsuccessful 1836 presidential bid and the successful 1840 election, the latter leading to his abbreviated presidential term, cut short by his death one month after his inauguration.
William McKinley Papers
The papers of army officer, U.S. representative, and governor of Ohio William McKinley (1843-1901), who became the twenty-fifth president of the United States, consist of 131,000 items (121,435 images) most of which were digitized from 98 reels of previously produced microfilm. Spanning the years circa 1847 to 1935, with the bulk dating from 1897 to 1901, the collection contains correspondence, speeches, messages, scrapbooks, printed matter, and other papers pertaining primarily to McKinley’s presidential administration. Subjects include Ohio state politics, presidential elections of 1896 and 1900, the gold standard, the McKinley tariff, progressivism, the Spanish-American War (1898), the Philippine-American War (1899-1902), territorial expansion, and McKinley’s assassination.
Woodrow Wilson Papers
The papers of Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), scholar, president of Princeton University, governor of New Jersey, and president of the United States (1913-1921), consist of approximately 280,000 documents, comprising approximately 620,000 images, most of which were digitized from 540 reels of previously produced microfilm. Held in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, these papers constitute the largest collection of original Wilson documents in the world. The collection contains personal, family, and official correspondence, White House executive office files, drafts and proofs of books, articles, speeches, academic lectures, scrapbooks, shorthand notes, and memorabilia dating from 1786 to 1957 with the bulk of material falling in the period between 1876 and 1924.
Zachary Taylor Papers
The Zachary Taylor Papers, one of twenty-three presidential collections in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, contains approximately 650 items dating from 1814 to 1931, with the bulk from 1840 to 1861. The collection is made up primarily of general correspondence and family papers of Taylor (1784-1850), with some autobiographical material, business and military records, printed documents, engraved printed portraits, and other miscellany relating chiefly to his presidency (1849-1850); his service as a U.S. Army officer, especially in the 2nd Seminole Indian War; management of his plantations; and settlement of his estate.

Photos, Prints, Drawings
Search the Library's digital collections to find prints, political cartoons, and other images related to U.S. presidential and presidential history.
Presidents of the United States: Selected Images From the Collections of the Library of Congress
These selected images of U.S. presidents were selected to meet requests regularly received by the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Theodore Roosevelt: His Life and Times on Film
Consisting of 104 motion pictures and four sound recordings, the majority of the motion pictures (87) are from the Theodore Roosevelt Association Collection in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (M/B/RS) at the Library of Congress.
Last Days of a President: Films of McKinley and the Pan-American Exposition, 1901
The twenty-eight films of this collection are actuality motion pictures from the Paper Print Collection of the Library of Congress. They include footage of President William McKinley at his second inauguration; of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York; of President McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition; and of President McKinley's funeral. The films were produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company from March to November 1901. The company, founded by inventor Thomas Alva Edison, operated from 1893 to 1917.

American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I
he Nation's Forum recordings were made between 1918 and 1920 in an effort to preserve the voices of prominent Americans; in most cases, they are the only surviving recordings of a speaker. The project originated with St. Louis attorney Guy Golterman (1879-1967), an active supporter of the opera and other performing arts. With the endorsement of the Department of State's Committee on Public Information -- a governmental propaganda ministry -- the Nation's Forum sought speakers, and the Columbia Graphophone Company pressed and distributed the recordings under the Nation's Forum label. The recordings fall into two distinct series. The 1918 series was devoted mostly to World War I topics and was apparently distributed only to political organizations and other groups. The notable exception is the recording of General John Pershing (with Ambassador James Gerard speaking on the reverse side), which was sold commercially. All of the recordings from the 1918 series were pressed on ten-inch discs. The 1919-1920 series was devoted mostly to postwar issues and the 1920 presidential election.
National Jukebox
The National Jukebox features over 10,000 78rpm disc sides issued by the Victor Talking Machine Co. between 1900 and 1925. The collections contains recordings of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, and Warren Harding.

Chronicling America
Historic American newspapers selected and contributed by state partners in the National Digital Newspaper Program. Search this collection to find newspaper articles about U.S. presidents.

The Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana
The collection contains more than 11,100 items. This online release presents more than 1,300 items with more than 4,000 images and a date range of 1824-1931. It includes the complete collection of Stern's contemporary newspapers, Lincoln's law papers, sheet music, broadsides, prints, cartoons, maps, drawings, letters, campaign tickets, and other ephemeral items. The books and pamphlets in this collection are scheduled for digitization at a later date.
Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929
This collection assembles a wide array of Library of Congress source materials from the 1920s that document the widespread prosperity of the Coolidge years, the nation's transition to a mass consumer economy, and the role of government in this transition. The collection includes nearly 150 selections from twelve collections of personal papers and two collections of institutional papers from the Manuscript Division; 74 books, pamphlets, and legislative documents from the General Collections, along with selections from 34 consumer and trade journals; 185 photographs from the Prints and Photographs Division and the Manuscript Division; and 5 short films and 7 audio selections of Coolidge speeches from the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. The collection is particularly strong in advertising and mass-marketing materials and will be of special interest to those seeking to understand economic and political forces at work in the 1920s.

Executive Branch Federal Government Web Archive
This collection includes websites from United States executive branch agencies. It includes main websites for cabinet level agencies but also specific reports, websites for individual parts of agencies, and websites for related organizations. This collection began in July 2016 and continues to the present (this is an ongoing archive). Many of these websites have older captures, however, as far back as 1996.
United States Elections Web Archive
The United States Elections Web Archive includes campaign sites archived weekly during the election seasons since 2000, documenting sites associated with presidential, congressional, and gubernatorial elections. The collection includes official campaign sites from general elections, special elections, and off-year elections. The sites archived in this collection typically include social media channels as well, in order to provide a fuller representation of how candidates presented themselves via the Internet to the electorate.

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Digital Collections

Digital Collections