Permission to Publish or Reproduce the Adams Family Papers
In 1956, the Adams Manuscript Trust transferred all rights to the Adams Family Papers manuscript collection to the Massachusetts Historical Society. Prior to the transfer, the MHS microfilmed the portion of the papers dating from 1639 to 1889. Research libraries and historical institutions around the world hold the 608-reel Microfilms of the Adams Papers. Click here for a list of those repositories.
The MHS sponsors the Adams Papers Editorial Project. Since 1961, the editorial project has published nearly sixty print volumes and two digital editions of The Adams Papers. Click here for a complete list of project publications.
The MHS also displays digital facsimiles of select Adams Family Papers manuscripts, including materials drawn from both the microfilm and print editions of the papers. Click here to learn more.
The MHS owns the Adams Family Papers and holds the copyright to both the print and microfilm editions of the Papers. There are separate guidelines for securing permission to reproduce materials from the microfilm and print editions and from the MHS website:
- For information about reproducing text, images, or documents in any form from the MHS website or the Microfilms of the Adams Papers, please consult the MHS Use Permission page or contact the reference librarian.
- Requests to reproduce text or images in any form from The Adams Papers, the print edition of the Adams Family Papers edited by the Adams Papers Editorial Project and published by the Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, should be directed to Copyright and Permissions at Harvard University Press, 79 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
If you have further questions concerning permission to publish from the Adams Family Papers manuscript collection, the print or microfilm editions of it, or the MHS website, please contact MHS reference librarian.
Recommended Citations
Letterpress edition: For publication details related to each print volume of The Adams Papers, including volume editors and publication date, please visit the project’s cumulative publications list.
Adams Papers Digital Edition: [Document], [Date], [Series], [Volume #], Adams Papers Digital Edition, [hyperlink]. For example,
- Abigail Adams to John Adams, 31 March 1776, Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 1, Adams Papers Digital Edition, http://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/ADMS-04-01-02-0241.
- “First Congress, Second Session, 4 January 1790 - 12 August 1790,” Editorial Note, Papers of John Adams, Volume 20, Adams Papers Digital Edition, http://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/ADMS-06-20-02-0131-0001.
- John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 3 August 1800, “A Tour of Silesia,” No. III, Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 14, http://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/ADMS-04-14-02-0163-0004.
- Charles Francis Adams, Diary, 4 July 1832, Adams Papers Digital Edition, http://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/ADMS-13-04-02-0002-0008-0004.
John Quincy Adams Digital Diary: John Quincy Adams Digital Diary, [entry date], Massachusetts Historical Society, [hyperlink].
