American Archives: Documents of the American Revolution

Beginning in 1837, the printer Peter Force devoted sixteen years to collecting thousands of pamphlets, booklets, and newspaper articles pertaining to the “Origin, Settlement, and Progress of the Colonies in North America” from the Revolutionary Era. He published them in a set of nine large volumes that he called the American Archives. By the late twentieth century, Force's collection of materials from the years 1774–76 had become a valuable scholarly resource, as it contained the only surviving copies of many important documents. This site allows its users to use sophisticated search and indexing software to explore Force's volumes. Professor Kulikoff has also produced a thematic indexing scheme describing the contents of every individual text in the American Archives collection. Together, these tools offer scholars, students, and lifetime learners with unprecedented access to these important primary source materials.