Selected Special Collections

Documents of the First Fourteen Congresses

Congressional Documents, 1787-1817

The extensive collection of early congressional documents held by the Rare Book and Special Collections Division is build upon the War Department collection that was assembled in the late nineteenth century by librarian David FitzGerald and General A. W. Greely and transferred to the Library of Congress in 1904. Containing over 3,680 separate titles, many in multiple copies, these public documents from the first fourteen Congresses (1789-1817) include presidential messages to Congress, legislative journals of both houses, secret proceedings or executive journals of the Senate, reports of congressional committees, communications to Congress by government officials, and petitions, memorials, and miscellaneous publications issued by congressional order.