LibGuides: United States Constitutional History Resources: Archival Collections and Primary Sources

Archives Focusing on the Constitution

American Founding Era Collection
The American Founding Era collection includes the edited papers of key early figures in the history of the United States, including: John Adams and his family; Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson,John Jay,Thomas Jefferson, Dolley Madison, James Madison, John Marshall,Eliza Lucas Pinckney and Harriott Pinckney Horry, and George Washington. It also includes a documentary history of the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, People of the Founding Era (a biographical dictionary) and more.
ConSource
A rich collection of documents from the founding era. Can be viewed either by document or organized by Constitutional provision.
The Founders' Constitution
An online equivalent to the print edition, The Founders' Constitution organizes original source documents according to constitutional provision.
World Constitutions Illustrated: United States of America
Contains a number of primary source materials on the Constitution, as well as a bibliography of law review articles and other materials.

Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window
Provides access to papers and records covering many significant periods in US and world history. These include government records, organizational files, and personal papers.

American Memory: A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation
A collection of archival material from the Library of Congress, including texts of founding era documents, charts, maps, and other archival materials.
Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy
This free resource from Yale University contains a number of documentary collections, including documents relating to the American Constitution, Blackstone's Commentaries, and colonial records.
Gerritsen Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs
A collection of primary sources on women's history, including books and pamphlets from 1543 to 1945.
History Vault: Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century
A collection of primary source materials from federal agencies, personal papers, and organizational records.
HathiTrust
A massive collection of archival materials. Materials published prior to 1922 are often available in full. Log in with your GSU campus ID to access additional features.
Internet Archive
In addition to archived websites, the Internet Archive contains a large collection of archived books, pamphlets, and other materials.
Marvin & Sybil Weiner Spirit of America Collection
A collection of digitized pamphlets, letters, and other documents designed to replicate the collection of a person living in colonial America.

America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Scans of historical American newspapers from 1690-1922. Early American newspapers, often printed by small-town printers, documented the daily life of hundreds of diverse American communities, supported different political parties, and recorded both majority and minority views. With thousands of titles from all 50 states including over 60 from Georgia, Early American Newspapers provides a record of the topics, people, issues, and events that have shaped America for nearly three centuries.

ProQuest News & Newspapers
Provides full-text access to many well-known newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
NewsBank
Historical coverage of select newspapers from major cities in the United States, primarily from the 20th Century.
Accessible Archives
Includes the full text of many 18th and 19th century newspapers and periodicals, including the Pennsylvania Gazette.
Chronicling America
Freely available digital collection of newspapers from the Library of Congress; covers 1789-1949.
Georgia Historic Newspapers
A freely accessible archive of local Georgia newspapers. Dates available vary by newspaper, but range from 1763 to 2018.

ProQuest Legislative Insight Digital Archive
Compilations of full-text legislative histories.

ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Contains full text publications from the federal government, including laws, hearings, bills, committee reports, etc.
ProQuest hosts a dedicated LibGuide for this collection that offers additional information including search tips.

U.S. Congressional Documents Library
Historical Congressional documents, including the American State Papers, Congressional Record, and Statutes at Large
U.S. Statutes at Large Library
Full text of the U.S. Statutes at Large from 1790 to the present

The NBER/Maryland State Constitutions Project
Contains searchable historical text of state constitutions.
Reference Guides to the State Constitutions of the United States
This book series describes the constitutional development in each state, including a bibliography of sources.

State Constitutional Conventions from Independence to the Completion of the Present Union, 1776-1959 by Cynthia Browne (Compiled by)
Call Number: KF4501.B76
ISBN: 0837170052
Publication Date: 1973-10-01
State Constitutional Conventions, 1776-1959
Call Number: Library North Microfiche KF4530.S73 1973
Publication Date: 1973
Includes the text of publications of state constitutional conventions and publications relating to these conventions issued by other agencies.
Prestatehood Legal Materials by Michael Chiorazzi (Editor); Marguerite Most (Editor)
Call Number: Law Reference KF240.P688 2005
ISBN: 0789020564
Publication Date: 2006-03-28
A collection of bibliographies relating to the colonial/territorial development of each state, including references and discussion of codes, colonial records, papers, and archives.

Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of the United States
A book series tracing the history of each state's constitution from its founding to the present day.

Georgia Government Publications
Provides a repository of scanned and born-digital documents from Georgia agencies. Additional projects have added other material of historical value, including the Georgia House and Senate Journals, the Georgia Laws from 2000 to present, and the transcripts of the meetings of the Select Committee on Constitutional Revision.
Georgia Legislative Documents
Provides access to Georgia session laws from 1799-1999, with a few gaps.
Historic Georgia Digests and Codes
Digitized versions of prior Georgia statutory compilations and codifications, from the 1799 Watkins Digest of Statutes to the 1933 Code.

English Reports
Contains the full text of the English Reports from 1220 to 1867 and the Statutes of the Realm from 1235 to 1713.
JustisOne
Contains the full text of UK case law and legislation back to 1163, including state trials and statutory instruments