Adams Family Papers
The Adams Family Papers, the most important manuscript collection owned by the Massachusetts Historical Society, contains extensive documents relating to John Adams (1735-1826), Abigail Smith Adams (1744-1818), and three generations of their descendants. The collection, dating from 1639 to 1889, includes public and private correspondence, letterbooks, diaries, literary manuscripts, speeches, legal and business papers, and other documents.
About the Collection
Members of the Adams family were public servants who shaped the nation's first century. Their collective writings chronicle both important historical events and the evolving social and intellectual patterns of life in early America. In addition to a wealth of domestic and social experiences, the papers encompass the events that precipitated the American Revolution and the negotiation of peace; the creation of a new national government from 1789; the international and domestic crises at the end of the eighteenth century; the War of 1812; the establishment of U.S. foreign policy under the terms of the Monroe Doctrine; the cultural and political repercussions of the nation's continental expansion; the growing moral and political issues surrounding slavery; the Civil War, both in its military and diplomatic sphere; and the challenges of Reconstruction and party struggles that followed.
Along with John and Abigail Adams, the collection includes papers relating to John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams (1775-1852), Charles Francis Adams (1807-1886), Charles Francis Adams II (1835-1915), and Henry Adams (1838-1918), among others and along with incoming correspondence from hundreds of major and minor figures in America and abroad.
Provenance
The Adams Manuscript Trust generously donated the manuscripts to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1956.
Access
The Adams Family Papers are available on microfilm; see the collection guide for more information and the list of institutions that hold the microfilm in the U.S. and abroad.
The Adams Papers Editorial Project is the Society's ongoing effort to publish the family's papers in an authoritative historical documentary edition. Previously published volumes of The Adams Papers, including annotations, index, and a search tool, are available online in the Adams Papers Digital Edition, while the John Quincy Adams Digital Diary is the comprehensive publication of Adams's 51-volume diary.
Portions of the Adams Family Papers are available online through the Society's digital collections. These include manuscript page images of the letters between John and Abigail Adams and John Adams's diary and autobiography. Visit masshist.org/adams for more information about locating portions of the collection that have been digitized.
In addition to the Adams Family Papers, the MHS holds many other collections that contain manuscripts relating to the Adams family. Visit the MHS webpage Additional MHS Collections for more information.
