Scope and Content Note
The papers and collection of Peter Force (1790-1868) span the period 1492-1977, with the bulk of the papers dated 1750 to 1868. It consists of Force's personal papers plus the transcripts and originals of manuscripts compiled for his nine-volume documentary publication, American Archives. Force's personal papers document his career as a Washington printer and publisher, newspaper editor, compiler, and collector. The collection records political, military, scientific, and social aspects of eighteenth and nineteenth century America.
In addition to documenting Force's career, his personal papers document his military service and his public service in Washington, D.C.; his scientific and intellectual pursuits including his participation in the programs of the National Institute, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Naval Observatory; and his historical interest including his role in organizing the first American Historical Society in 1836. Providing insights into the state of historical scholarship and bibliography, 1830-1868, Force's papers record his compilation of the American Archives and his relationships with historians and antiquarians who sought his advice or the use of Force's library.
The collection is organized into the following series: I: General Correspondence ; II: William Q. Force Papers ; III: Printer's File ; IV: Subject File; V: Financial Papers ; VI: Historical Working Papers ; VII: Transcripts ; VIII: Manuscript Collections ; IX: Miscellaneous Manuscripts ; X: Addition , and Oversize .
Series I: General Correspondence consists chiefly of letters received with drafts of letters sent, which relate chiefly to the proposal and congressional inquiries on the American Archives. There is little family correspondence, with the exception of a dozen Civil War letters from his son, M.F. (Manning Ferguson) Force, who became a major-general in the Union Army and served with General William T. Sherman. Correspondents include George Bancroft, John Bartlett, James Buchanan, M. St. Clair Clarke, Samuel G. Drake, Lyman Copeland Draper, John Farmer, Philip Ricard Fendall, John Forsyth, Joseph Gales, Edward Livingston, Hermann E. Ludewig, Francis Markoe, George B. Moore, William B. Reed, O. (Obadiah) Rich, John C. Rives, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, William Seaton, Buckingham Smith, Henry Stevens, Sr. (1791-1867), Henry Stevens, Jr. (1819-1886), Ainsworth Rand Spofford, Tobias Watkins, George Watterston, Daniel Webster, Roger Chew Weightman, and John Hill Wheeler.
Series II: William Q. Force Papers contains the diaries and business papers of Peter's eldest son, William Q., who remained in Washington and resided in the same house with his father. William worked as an editor, and later, as a clerk in the Smithsonian Institution, and his diaries give insight into Washington's religious, intellectual, and scientific community, 1864-1877.
Series III: Printer's File and Series VI: Historical Working Papers supplement the General Correspondence in delineating Force's career as printer and historical editor. Series III: Printer's File records Force's political activities as editor of the John Quincy Adams administration newspaper, the National Journal, and his printing activities. The series includes correspondence, financial papers, notes, and printer's copy of speeches, plays, poems, memoirs, political pamphlets, military registries, and legal materials.
Series IV: Subject File contains personal material from the Force family including military commissions, genealogy material, and family photographs. The series also documents Peter Force's business activities with catalogs and receipts from Davis & Force publishing house as well as his patent applications, research notes, and legal materials.
Series V: Financial Papers contains bank books, bills, receipts, and subscription information from the Davis & Force company and the Washington Republican.
Series VI: Historical Working Papers records Force's method of selecting and controlling his massive collection; the condition of American records and personal papers; and mid-nineteenth century American bibliography. The series includes lists, surveys, and indexes of books, manuscripts, surveys, and index sheets.
Series VII: Transcripts consists of copies taken from official records, private papers, and contemporary publications intended to document political and military aspects of the American Revolution and to appear in the Documentary History of the American Revolution. Although the transcripts span the years 1526 to 1850, they concentrate in the years 1774-1777. Material from the latter period was printed or prepared for printing in the American Archives. The Transcripts series is organized into five subseries:
VII A: American Archives includes printer's copy and duplicate or rejected copy and contains more than ninety percent of the copy used in American Archives, often with the citation of the original given. The page numbers in the container list reference the published version of American Archives. The handwritten numbers on the transcript documents do not correspond to the printed version.
VII B: Printed Sources contains transcripts of published documents chiefly used in the American Archives, including newspapers, pamphlets, memoirs, correspondence, speeches, and local history material.
VII C: Papers of the Continental Congress contains transcripts made at the Department of State, circa 1833-1850. The item numbers in the container list refer to Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, Record Group 360, at the National Archives and Records Administration. The materials have been microfilmed (series M247) and are arranged in numerical order by item number.
VII D: Papers of George Washington contains transcripts made at the Department of State, circa 1840. The largest groups of transcripts not used in the American Archives are those taken from the papers of the Continental Congress and the papers of George Washington.
VII E: Other Manuscript Sources contains 164 numbered collections of material relating to the colonial history of the United States. The transcripts, made in preparation for publication in American Archives, include personal journals, memoirs, correspondence, colonial and government records, military papers, historical societies, private collections, and foreign archives. Some of the private collections transcripts gathered by Peter Force include those of Jeremy Belknap, Joseph Vallance Bevan, Silas Deane, William Buell Sprague, and Jonathan Trumbull. The transcripts cover from the 1560s-1880s with the bulk concentrated in the years 1774-1779.
Series VIII: Manuscript Collections documents the colonization of the Americas covering politics, religion, and trade in the colonies as well as the role of the military in the Colonial Wars and the Revolution. The series is organized into four subseries:
VIII A: George Chalmers Collection consists of historical material primarily relating to the British Empire including the colonies of Africa, Bahamas, Barbados, Canada, Central America, North America, and the West Indies. The collection also includes the personal letters and notes of George Chalmers (1742-1845) illustrating his career as clerk of the Privy Council. Chalmers, a Scottish-born Maryland loyalist, antiquarian, and colonial administrator, wrote An Introduction to the History of the Revolt of the British Colonies (1782), one of the first histories of the American revolution that relied on the use of public records. The Chalmers Collection reflects Chalmers's concern for the commercial development of the colonies as part of the empire.
VIII B: Ebenezer Hazard Collection features New England colonial material, German descriptions of early Pennsylvania, clippings from newspapers and pamphlets on political subjects, 1768-1776, and a collection of materials on the Stamp Act controversy. It consists chiefly of transcripts. Ebenezer Hazard (1744-1817), businessman, postmaster, and antiquarian, had made his own copies of documents for inclusion in a two-volume work, Historical Collections; Consisting of State Papers and Other Authentic Documents; Intended as Materials for an History of the United States of America (Philadelphia, 1792-1794). The bulk of the collection consists of Hazard's personal and professional papers as well as the material he collected and arranged by subject, geographical area, or name of individual. The remainder consists of Samuel Hazard's additions to his father's collection.
VIII C: Hispanic Collection consists primarily of eighteenth-century transcriptions of works concerning the history of the New World by various Spanish writers, including Bartolomé de las Casas, José Cortes, Diego Duran, and Juan Bautista Muñoz. The series addresses not only the history of Spanish colonial rule in the Americas but the history, rites, government, and customs of various Native American populations. Works by Bartolomé de las Casas include accounts of the decimation of the indigenous people of the West Indies and early advocacy for the rights of Native Americans. The series includes indices, illustrations, maps, and trial transcripts.
VIII D: Other Collection s includes papers of Ephraim Blaine, Pierre Eugène Du Simitière, Nathaniel Greene, John Paul Jones, Thomas Hamilton, and Charles Simms; numerous private accounts and journals and orderly books; Loan Office Records for Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island; merchants accounts and letterbooks for John Edwards Caldwell, Fourcauld & Company, Robert Hancock Hunter, Joshua Johnson, John de Neufville & Son, Jonathan and Samuel Smith, and Woolsey & Salmon; eighteenth-century meteorological observations of Jacob Cushing and Abiel Holmes; and organizational records of the Columbia Institute and National Institute for the Promotion of Science. The series also includes the papers of John Fitch, inventor and craftsman, and Jeremy Robinson, American diplomat in Latin America in the 1820s. An index to the John Fitch Papers can be found in Appendix A: Calendar of the John Fitch Papers.
Series IX: Miscellaneous Manuscripts includes correspondence, reports, receipts, poems, and other material. The series is arranged chronologically, however, an index to the correspondents in Series IX is available in Appendix B: Peter Force Index. While the index is primarily dedicated to correspondents in Series IX, it does include some correspondents found in Series VII and Series VIII.
Series X: Addition consists primarily of the papers of Edward Stead, great-grandson of Peter Force, including family correspondence, miscellany, and manuscript volumes. In 1967, Stead donated documents regarding the purchase of the Force Library and diaries of William Q. Force.
The Oversize series contains material from Series III: Printer's File , IV: Subject File , VI: Historical Working Papers , VII: Transcriptions , VIII: Manuscript Collections , and IX: Miscellaneous Manuscripts . Types of material include bound indices, maps, commissions, patents, muster rolls, military instruction manuals, deeds, and land grants.