History @ CUL

Founders Online is Here

It has been a long time coming (when the Archivist of the US first announced it, he promised a prototype site for Sept., 2011), but Founders Online is finally here.  It makes freely available online the historical documents of the Founders of the United States of America.  Professor Mary Beth Norton was one of a small group of outside experts that guided the development of the project.

Since Founders Online is powered by the University of Virginia software that drives its subscription product American Founding Era collection, you might be wondering whether you can stop using the subscription product and only use the free version.  The answer, unfortunately, is no.  There are still significant differences between them:

• The American Founding Era collection includes several collections not included in the Founders Online product.  They include The Papers of Eliza Lucas Pinckney and Harriott Pinckney Horry, The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, and The Dolley Madison Digital Edition.
• Founders Online will include in late 2013 a collection not included in the American Founding Era collection: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin.  These had previous been freely available at at www.franklinpapers.org.
• Both products contain transcriptions of thousands of documents that have not yet appeared in the published volumes, provided via the Early Access program that releases unedited transcripts of letters.
• Search mechanisms in the two products differ.  Founders Online favors a simple search box with subsequent refinement by collection, date, and period possible.  The Founding Era collection allows for complex searches from the start.

For the time being, therefore, students of the early republic will need to consult both online resources.  Perhaps one day the National Archives will elect simply to secure a national subscription to the American Founding Era collection, thus obviating the need to maintain two incomplete delivery mechanisms.

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