American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. These digital records chronicle the events, people, places, and ideas that shaped and continue to influence American history and creativity.
Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation
American State Papers document the social and political history of our nation through 6,278 legislative and executive publications collected and arranged under 10 subject areas in 38 volumes. These publications help cover the historical gap from 1789 to when the first volume of the U.S. Serial Set was published in 1817. The 10 subject areas of the American State Papers are:
| I. Foreign Relations | VI. Naval Affairs |
| II. Indian Affairs | VII. Post Office Department |
| III. Finances | VIII. Public Lands |
| IV. Commerce and Navigation | IX. Claims |
| V. Military Affairs | X. Miscellaneous |
The Serial Set contains the House and Senate Documents and the House and Senate Reports. The reports are usually from congressional committees dealing with proposed legislation and issues under investigation. The documents include all other papers ordered to be printed by the House or Senate. Documents cover a wide variety of topics and may include reports of executive departments and independent organizations, reports of special investigations made for Congress, and annual reports of non-governmental organizations.
Wichita State University owns paper copies of the Serial Set and the American State papers. Follow this link to their catalog to search for these publications.
No catalog, index or checklist covering early federal government publications is comprehensive for the time frame or branches of government covered; therefore, historical research using government publications can seldom be completed with just one resource.
Poore (1774-1881)
Poore, Benjamin Perley. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Government Publications of the United States, Sept. 5, 1774-March 4, 1881. ( Young Library - Reference Ready Ref.: Z1223 .P66 2004). Available at Johns Hopkins (downloadable .pdf). This work represents the earliest attempt to list all publications from the three branches of government. However, as this project was started many years after the publications were first issued, Poore had to locate them in various federal, public and private libraries before they could be included in the catalogue. Therefore, the Descriptive Catalog is incomplete, especially for early publications. It is better for coverage of Congressional publications than departmental (executive) publications. Arranged by date and within date alphabetically by title. Contains a minimal and incomplete subject and name index. Use the Checklist below to find Serial Set and SuDoc numbers.
Greely (1789-1817)
Greely, Adolphus Washington. Public Documents of the First Fourteen Congresses, 1789-1817. Washington: D.C.: GPO, 1900. (Young Library - Reference Ready Ref.: Z1223 .A 1900). Arranged chronologically by Congress. Has a name index. Overlaps with Poore, but Greely made no attempt to include department (executive) publications. The full-text of Public Documents is available online from Google Books.
Greely, Adolphus Washington. Public Documents of the First Fourteen Congresses, 1789-1817. [Supplement]. (Young Library - Reference Ready Ref.: Z1223 .A 1900 suppl.) The full-text of the supplement to Public Documents is available online from Google Books.
Checklist (1789-1909)
Superintendent of Documents. Checklist of United States Public Documents, 1789-1909. Available online and searchable from Google Books and the Internet Archive. The Checklist reproduces the shelf-list of the Public Documents Library (now part of National Archives and Records). Useful for finding Serial Set and SuDoc numbers. Congressional publications are listed chronologically and include the Serial Set number. Departmental publications are listed in agency/SuDoc number order. Includes an index of government agencies. There is no subject index. Especially valuable for historical notes on agencies and series.
Tables and Index (1817-1893)
United States. Superintendent of Documents. Tables of and Annotated Index to the Congressional Series of United States Public Documents. (Young Library - Reference: Z1223 .A 1902). Tables and Index is available online from Google books. Covers the Serial Set from the 15th through the 52d Congresses. Includes an author, title, and subject index for important documents.
Ames (1881-1893)
Ames, John G. Comprehensive Index to the Publications of the United States Government, 1881-1893. (Young Library - Reference Ready Ref.: Call Number: Z1223 .J83 2004). The 1905 original index is available online from Google books. Some overlap with Poore but basically starts where Poore stops. Has more complete coverage, although coverage of departmental publications is still minimal. Entries arranged by subject (title keyword). Personal name index included. Information for the Congressional Serial Set by session and series volume included.
Documents Catalog (1893-1940)
Superintendent of Documents. Catalogue of the Public Documents of the ... Congress and of all Departments of the Government of the United States for the Period from ... to ... The Documents Catalog is available online from Google books. The Document Catalog was the most comprehensive and accurate of the indexes to government publications, including the Monthly Catalog for the same time period. It was continually behind publishing schedule, however, which led to its demise in 1940. This index lists entries by author, subject and some by title.
Monthly Catalog (1895-1976)
Superintendent of Documents. Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications (title varies slightly between 1895-present). (From 1940 forward the Monthly Catalog became the only authoritative finding tool for federal government publications. Originally indexed by subject, title, and author, later volumes also include indexes by contract number, report number, stock number, and keywords in the title. A periodicals supplement lists serial publications that are issued more than three times annually. Congressional publications are not comprehensively represented. Cumulative indexes cover 1941-1950, 1951-1960, 1961-1965, 1966-1970, 1971-1976 and 1976-1980.
Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications, 1895-1976 includes both keyed full-text records and page images of the original printed catalog. Search for keywords across all issues or during a specific period, find documents by individual or corporate author, or search any of the other fields included in the records. Each issue can be browsed chronologically from the Browse tab, and many of the fields, including Title, Author and SuDoc number, can be browsed from the Search screen. Use Superintendent of Documents (SuDoc) number in each entry to locate material on shelf in library. Owned by Wichita State University.
Catalog of U.S. Government Publications. This online catalog replaces the above; it is a finding tool for electronic and print publications from legislative, executive and judicial branches of the U.S. government. The CGP is produced by the U.S. Government Printing Office, GPO, and contains records for current and historical U.S. government publications and provides links to online versions when available. CGP is comprehensive from 1976 to the present; older materials are being added. It replaces the old Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.