Zinie Chen Sampson
Associated Press
via CNSNews.com
10/20/2010
Richmond, Va. (AP) – Archivists are creating a public, online clearinghouse of letters, journals and other documents from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other major founders of the United States.
The University of Virginia Press will put the published papers of Washington, Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin online on a public website of the National Archives. The National Historical Publications and Records Commission, part of the National Archives, will provide up to $2 million for the project.
The U.Va. Press already has volumes of print editions of the founders’ papers, and a number of the documents appear online on its digital site, Rotunda. U.Va. archivists will use the online documents as a basis for a new, searchable National Archives database.
The full public site is expected to launch by June 2012.
