The Papers of Thomas Jefferson is a multi-volume scholarly edition devoted to the publication of the public and private papers of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. The project, established at Princeton University, is the definitive edition of documents written by or to Jefferson. Work on the series began in 1944 and was undertaken solely at Princeton until 1998, when responsibility for editing documents from Jefferson's post-presidential retirement years, 1809 until 1826, shifted to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello. This enabled work to progress simultaneously on two different periods of Jefferson's life and thereby doubled the production of volumes without compromising the high standards set for the project.
History
The project grew out of a plan developed in 1943 by Julian P. Boyd, the chief librarian of Princeton University, a scholar of the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, and the historian of the Thomas Jefferson Bicentennial Commission. The Commission tasked Boyd with studying whether or not a comprehensive collection of Jefferson's papers would be feasible. Prior to this less than 20% of Jefferson's papers had been published in any format and what had been published had been highly selective and thinly or poorly annotated.
Boyd, who served as the project's first general editor, intended the finished project to be complete enough to replace what had been previously published and to ensure that the task would not have to be redone in the future. Princeton University agreed to host the editorial project and Princeton University Press also agreed to publish the volumes. Initial funding came from The New York Times Company. Although the United States government, which was in the midst of World War II, could not fund the early phases of the project's work, both President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his successor Harry S. Truman were enthusiastic supporters. The project's first volume was released in 1950 to near universal praise.
As conceived by Boyd, the edition would consist of two series: one chronological and one topical. The chronological series includes letters written by and to Jefferson, as well as other documents such as memoranda, notes, and Jefferson's public addresses. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson cites itself as the "first modern historical documentary edition" and has exerted a strong influence on the presentation and organization of materials for other historical editions. Similar projects have used The Papers of Thomas Jefferson as their model.
Boyd continued to work on the Papers until his death in 1980. Boyd's immediate successor, Charles T. Cullen, introduced computer technology and the systematic indexing of the volumes. During his lifetime of working on The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Boyd created new, higher ideals for historical editing, which his successors Cullen and Catanzariti continued after his death. Subsequent editors have been John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and James P. McClure.
General editors
Julian P. Boyd (Volumes 1 - 20) 1943-1980
Charles T. Cullen (Volumes 21-23) 1980-1986
John Catanzariti (Volumes 24-28) 1986-1998
Barbara B. Oberg (Volumes 29-41) 1999-2014
James P. McClure (Volumes 42 - current) 2014-
Retirement Series
In 1998 Princeton University entered into a partnership with the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc., which owns and operates Monticello, Jefferson's primary plantation and the place where he spent much of the remainder of his life. The Foundation assumed responsibility for Jefferson's papers composed between the end of his presidency on 4 March 1809 and his death on 4 July 1826. This new effort, named the Retirement Series, is also published by Princeton University Press in a similar format. Aided by a start-up grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts, work began in 1999 at Monticello under the editorial leadership of historian J. Jefferson Looney. The Retirement Series is expected to be completed in twenty-three annotated volumes.