Primary Sources: The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution Digital Edition

Posted on by dorner

The Library has acquired access to the digital edition of The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, a landmark work in historical and legal scholarship that draws upon thousands of sources to trace the Constitution’s progress through each of the thirteen states’ conventions.

The work is the result of the NHPRC and NEH funded Ratification Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the goal of which is to collect, preserve, publish, and encourage the use of primary documentary sources dealing with the debate over the ratification of the United States Consitution and the Bill of Rights between 1787 and 1791. The project has collected copies of over 60,000 documents, including convention and legislative records, private papers, and newspapers, broadsides, and pamphlets.

The digital edition currently includes these volumes of the Ratification series:

  • Volume I: Constitutional Documents and Records, 1776-1787
  • Volume II: Ratification by the States: Pennsylvania
  • Volume III: Ratification by the States: Delaware, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut*
  • Volume IV: Ratification by the States: Massachusetts, No. 1
  • Volume V: Ratification by the States: Massachusetts, No. 2
  • Volume VI: Ratification by the States: Massachusetts, No. 3
  • Volume VII: Ratification by the States: Massachusetts, No. 4
  • Volume VIII: Ratification by the States: Virginia, No. 1
  • Volume IX: Ratification by the States: Virginia, No. 2
  • Volume X: Ratification by the States: Virginia, No. 3
  • Volume XIII: Commentaries on the Constitution, No. 1
  • Volume XIV: Commentaries on the Constitution, No. 2
  • Volume XV: Commentaries on the Constitution, No. 3
  • Volume XVI: Commentaries on the Constitution, No. 4
  • Volume XVII:Commentaries on the Constitution, No. 5
  • Volume XVIII: Commentaries on the Constitution, No. 6
  • Volume XIX, Ratification by the States: New York, No. 1
  • Volume XX, Ratification by the States: New York, No. 2
  • Volume XXI: Ratification by the States: New York, No. 3
  • Volume XXII: Ratification by the States: New York, No. 4
  • Volume XXIII: Ratification by the States: New York, No. 5
  • Volume XXIV: Ratification by the States: Rhode Island, No. 1
  • Volume XXV: Ratification by the States: Rhode Island, No. 2
  • Volume XXVI: Ratification by the States: Rhode Island, No. 3