Government Documents on Southern U.S. History

Government publications are important resources for the development of southern U.S. history before and after the Civil War. This guide will focus on U.S. Government resources on this region available within the Purdue Libraries and through selected Internet resources covering through the Civil War. Most federal government publications from this period are in the HSSE Library or in the Undergraduate Library´s Hicks Repository. Many recent U.S. government publications are in the Library Catalog but most government publications for this era are not in the Library Catalog. Locating these resources for the antebellum period requires using a number of print indexes.

The principal index for U.S. Government publications is Monthly Catalog
of U.S. Government Publications HSSE REF & Periodicals 016.353 Un36. This
indexes all U.S. Government publications distributed to federal depository
libraries through the Federal Depository Library Program. Additional indexes
for historical U.S. documents include:

Cumulative Title Index to U.S. Public Documents 1789-1976	HSSE REF 016.353 C913
Checklist of U.S. Public Documents 1789-1909 (Online version courtesy of Evergreen State College)	HSSE REF 016.353 Un3c3
CIS U.S. Serial Set Index & Cartobibliography 1789-1969	HSSE REF 328.73 C761c
CIS Index to U.S. Executive Branch Documents 1789-1909 (Purdue does not have the microfiche collection accompanying this index but Indiana University and the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign have it and it can be requested thru Interlibrary Loan.)	HSSE REF 351.73 C497 1990
CIS U.S. Congressional Committee Hearings Index 1833-1969 (Microfiche of these indexed hearings from 1869-1934 are in the Senate Library microfiche collection in HSSE's 2nd floor microforms collection.)	HSSE REF 348.731 C76
CIS Index to Unpublished Senate Committee Hearings 1823-1964	HSSE REF 348.731 C497
Guide to U.S. Government Publications	HSSE REF 015.73 G943

General U.S. Document legal reference sources include:

U.S. Code	HSSE REF 345.11 Un3co
U.S. Statutes at Large	HSSE REF 345.11 Un3& HSSE MF (1789-1903)
U.S. Reports	HSSE DOC JU 6.8:
Lawyer's Guide to U.S. Supreme Court Reports	HSSE REF 345.4 Un37r
Lexis-Nexis Academic (Provides comprehensive current and historical access to the full text of federal and state court cases.)

Other U.S. document reference sources for this period include:

Historical Statistics of the United States (Online-Purdue Users Only)	HSSE REF 317.3 St29sh
Women in Congress	HSSE DOC Y 1.1/7:101-238
Biographical Dictionary of the United States Congress	HSSE REF 328.73 D63b 1997
A Guide to Pre-Federal Records in the National Archives	HSSE DOC REF AE 1.108:P 91
Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives	HSSE DOC REF AE 1.108:G 94
Guide to Records of the National Archives (various regions)	HSSE DOC REF AE 1.108:R 24/3
Guide to Records of the U.S. House of Representatives at the National Archives, 1789-1909	HSSE DOC Y 1.1/7:100-245
Guide to Research Collections of former Members of the U.S. House of Representatives	HSSE DOC Y 1.1/7:100-171
Guide to Records of the U.S. Senate at the National Archives, 1789-1909	HSSE DOC Y 1.1/3:100-42

Additional congressional and executive branch publications in HSSE include:

Congressional Bills (1799-1873)

Journal of the House of Representatives (1789-1875) & XJH HSSE Repository and HIKS Repo

Senate Journal (1789-1875) & XJS HSSE Repository & HIKS Repo

Senate Executive Journal (1789-1875)(Lists Presidential Nominations) HIKS Repo Y 1.3:EX 3 & HSSE DOC Y 1.3/4:

Letters of Delegates to Congress 1774-1789	HSSE DOC LC 1.34:
Annals of Congress 1789-1824	HSSE Repository X
Congressional Debates 1824-1837	HSSE Repository X
Congressional Globe 1835-1874	HSSE Repository X
Congressional Record 1874-Present (Online 1994-present)	HSSE Repository X & X/A:
American State Papers	HSSE Repository Y 1.1/2:
Congressional Serial Set (Selected titles online) Lexis-Nexis Digital Congressional Serial Set (Purdue users only)	HSSE Repository Y 1.1/2: & HSSE MF (v. 1-916, 1817-1857)
Territorial Papers of the United States	HSSE 973.082 Un3
Decennial Census of the United States	HSSE Repository 317.3
Richardson's Messages & Papers of the President 1789-1897	HSSE 353.03 R39
General Land Office Automated Records Project: Pre-1908 Patents: Homesteads... Alabama (CD-ROM)	HSSE DOC REF I 53.57:AL 1 B
General Land Office Automated Records Project: Pre-1908 Patents: Homesteads... Arkansas (CD-ROM)	HSSE DOC REF I 53.57:AR 4 K/998
General Land Office Automated Records Project... Florida (CD-ROM)	HSSE DOC REF I 53.57:F 66/2
General Land Office Automated Records Project... Louisiana (CD-ROM)	HSSE DOC REF I 53.57:L 93
General Land Office Automated Records Project... Mississippi (CD-ROM)	HSSE DOC REF I 53.57:M 69
From the Golden Gate to Mexico City: The U.S. Army Topographical Engineers in the Mexican War 1846-1848	HSSE DOC D 114.2:G 57
The Role of Federal Military Forces in Domestic Disorders 1789-1878	HSSE DOC D 114.19:R 64
Official Records of the War of the Rebellion: Army (Also in CD-ROM HSSE REF)	HIKS Repository W 45.5:
Official Records of the War of the Rebellion: Navy	HIKS Repository N 16.6:
Draft General Management Plan: Stones River National Battlefield Tennessee	HSSE DOC I 29.79/3:ST 7
Draft General Management Plan: Cane River Creole National Historic Park	HSSE DOC I 29.79/3:C 16/DRAFT

Documentary History of the First Federal Congress 1789-1791 (17 vols.) HSSE 328.7309 Un3As 2004

Internet Resources

Although only a small portion of the historical literature ever produced by the
U.S. Government and U.S. state governments is Internet accessible, there is
a significant body of historical documentary material that has been digitized.
A limited portion of this digitizing has been done by U.S. Government agen-
cies such as the Library of Congress and, in selected instances, by southern
state government agencies. Significant digitization of government documents
pertinent to antebellum southern history has been done by academic entities.
The following is a partial sampling of the growing variety of historical govern-
ment information resources on antebellum southern history that are Internet
accessible:

American Memory Project-(Library of Congress resource providing access to various digitized U.S. History resources. Railroad Maps 1828-1900 and Southern Black Churches 1780-1925 are relevant southern history resources.)

A Century of Law Making for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents & Debates 1774-1873

Documents from the Continental Congress & the Constitutional Convention 1774-1789

National Archives & Records Administration

U.S. Army Center for Military History

Naval History Center

National Park Service History & Culture

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion: Army (Courtesy Cornell University Library)

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion: Navy (Courtesy Cornell University Library)

United States Historical Census Data Browser (Courtesy University of Virginia Library)

Census of Population & Housing 1790-Present

U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey Annual Reports (1852-1950) HIKS Repository C 4.1: (1851-1955)

Project Avalon: Documents in History, Law, & Diplomacy (Courtesy Yale University)