The Government, the Historical Profession, and Historical Editing: A Review

Abstract

Just over thirty years ago in a ceremony at the Library of Congress Harry S Truman was presented with the first volume of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. That same year the Federal Records Act resuscitated the National Historical Publications Commission, which had been created at the same time as the National Archives in order to plan and recommend a national program of documentary publication. In 1954, in response to Trumen's requests and after considerable study, the commission sent to President Eisenhower A National Program for the Publication of Historical Documents and thus launched a renaissance of historical editing in the United States. We have come far in three decades. By early 1979 the expanded and retitled National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)* spending some fourteen millions of federal dollars itself and with over eighteen million more of private donations, had sponsored the publication of some 237 letterpress volumes and nearly 5000 microfilm reels of historical documents, with many more partially completed and projected. The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) contributed at least another seven and a half million dollars, and what with support from the institutions sponsoring and housing the projects, university presses, business, and foundations, the amount of money devoted to historical editing has undoubtedly exceeded forty million dollars. What has this money accomplished, and what is being accomplished now, every year, by the expenditure of over three million dollars in federal funds alone?1 Without question the huge outpouring of documents published with NHPRC and NEH guidance and encouragement has bestowed on historians greatly expanded access to the sources for teaching and research. Scholars now have much more accurate texts of important documents, large runs of