LibGuides: History 200D: Race, Sports, and Politics: Developing a Historical Perspective: Government Documents

Page from FBI File on Muhammad Ali

Oversight Hearing on Discrimination in Tennis (HRG-1988-EDL-0037)

Presidential Medal of Freedom. President's remarks upon presenting the Medal to Jesse Owens, with Mr. Owens' response

1940 Census Enumeration Form: Charles Miller, 30, African American, Professional Baseball Player

1940 census enumeration form showing Charles Miller, aged 30, African American professional baseball player in Pittsburgh

Introduction

Due to the historically decentralized nature of the government in the United States, there is no single source for locating government documents, and the organization and accessibility of these documents are idiosyncratic, depending on the level and place of government you are researching (e.g. federal, state, county, township, municipal).

Even within the same level of government, the publication, retention, and organization of documents will vary by branch of government (legislative, judicial, executive), and even within the same branch (e.g. executive) you will find variances between agencies, and between the same agency at different periods of time. Prior to the Presidential Records Act of 1978, all presidential papers were considered the personal property of the president, and presidents took their papers with them when they left office.

This section of the guide primarily covers documents of the United States federal government. As described above, documents of the various states are organized differently, depending on the state. A good place to begin for historical documents of the individual states is:

LLMC (Law Library Microform Consortium) Digital Library
Historical record of statutory, administrative, and case law for U.S. federal government, states, and territories.

For county, township, and municipal documents, it's best to contact the clerks' offices of those branches of government directly.

For more help finding government documents, contact the Library's unit of Research and Information Services.

Executive Branch

Executive Branch Documents, 1789-1939
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Issued in two modules, the first module covers United States Executive Branch publications from 1789 to 1932 (not already printed in the U.S. Serial Set). The second module extends coverage to 1939. Part of ProQuest Congressional. Navigate to "Advanced Search" and select file "Executive Branch".

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Module 1 includes publications issued by the following Executive Branch departments: Agriculture Department; American Republics Bureau; Civil Service Commission; District of Columbia; Fish Commission; Freedman's Savings and Trust Company; Geographic Board; Government Printing Office; General Supply Committee; Navy Department; War Department; Interior Department; Justice Department; Labor Department; Interstate Commerce Commission; Library of Congress; State Department; National Academy of Sciences; National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers; Post Office Department; President of United States; Smithsonian Institution; Treasury Department; Commerce and Labor Department; and Labor Department. Module 2 includes publications from Treasury Department; Smithsonian Institution; Tariff Commission; Veterans Administration; Veterans Bureau; Vocational Education Board; Commerce Department; War Department; War Trade Board; Interior Department; Justice Department; Labor Department; General Accounting Office; Government Printing Office; Interstate Commerce Commission; Agriculture Department; American Republics Bureau; Civil Service Commission; Navy Department; Library of Congress; Mediation Board; National Academy of Sciences; National Capital Park and Planning Commission; National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers; Post Office Department; State Department; Pan American Union; Pan American Sanitary Bureau; Public Buildings and Public Parks of the National Capital; Personnel Classification Board; Philippine Government; President of United States; Postal Savings System; Reserve Bank Organization Committee; Radio Commission; Railroad Labor Board; and Shipping Board. All documents are indexed and are searchable by publication title, issuing agency, subject heading, and SuDoc classification code. A PDF facsimile of each document accompanies its index record, and users can also search these PDFs, though search precision and recall are lower for the PDFs than for the index records. Access the database through the ProQuest Congressional Advanced Search.
Executive Branch Documents, 1940-1942 TRIAL
Module 3.
Executive Branch Documents, 1943-1945 TRIAL
Module 4.
Executive Branch Documents, 1946-1948 TRIAL
Module 5.
Executive Orders and Presidential Proclamations, 1789-present
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Executive orders and proclamations are legal instruments, and as such carry the force of law. Part of ProQuest Congressional. Navigate to "Advanced Search" and select file "Presidential Materials".
American Presidency Project
A selected collection of the most important documents from collections of presidential papers. Includes: Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Washington through Taft; the Public Papers of the Presidents, Hoover to Obama; the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Carter through George W. Bush; the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents, Obama. Project of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
United States Census Enumeration Forms, 1790-1940
The Census enumeration forms are used to conduct the Decennial Census. In theory, they identify every resident of every household in the country, along with information about each resident. Information recorded changes from census to census, but usually includes each resident's relationship to the head of household, the date of birth, the person's country of origin, the person's occupation, gender, marital status, whether or not the person owns his or her own home, and other information. Because so much personal information is included on these forms, they are not made publicly available until 72 years after it was collected. Thus, the most recently available enumeration forms are from the 16th Census of the United States (1940). Part of HeritageQuest.
FBI Records: The Vault
A large collection of the files and records most recently requested by Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Examples: Weather Underground, Black Panther Party, Dorothy Day, Mississippi Burning, Elijah Muhammad, and more. Suspected communists and socialists were frequently investigated.

Legislative Branch

United States Bills and Laws, 1789-2013
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All public and private bills and resolutions of the United States Congress. Previously called "Digital U.S. Bills and Resolutions". Part of ProQuest Congressional. Navigate to "Advanced Search" and select file "Bills and Laws".
United States Bills and Laws, 2014-Present TRIAL
United States Congressional Hearings Digital Collection, 1824-present
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Both the published and unpublished hearings, which includes transcripts of spoken testimony, written statements of witnesses, reports, exhibits, correspondence, or other material submitted by interested parties. Hearings are held by Congressional committees as a way of collecting the information needed to inform decision making. Part of ProQuest Congressional. Navigate to "Advanced Search" and select the file "Hearings".

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Hearings are held by Congressional committees as a way of collecting the information needed to inform decision making. In addition to transcripts of verbal testimony, hearings may contain written statements of witnesses, reports, exhibits, correspondence, or other material submitted by interested parties. In this collection, you can search full text, by witness name, or by subject headings (e.g. "Radical Politics", "Students for a Democratic Society", "Public Demonstrations", "Communist Parties"
United States Congressional Record and Its Predecessors Permanent Digital Collection, 1789-1997
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In ProQuest Congressional (for best results, choose the "Congressional Record Only" search tab). The Congressional Record, which began publication in 1873, is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. Its predecessors were the Annals of Congress (1789-1824), the Register of Debates (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873). The Hein Online Congressional Documents Library has a slightly more-extensive collection: the Journals of the Continental Congress (1774-1789), the Annals of the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1825-1837), the Congressional Globe (1833-1873), the Congressional Record (1873-present), and the Congressional Record Daily (1980-present, updated daily). Part of ProQuest Congressional: navigate to "Advanced Search" and select the file "Congressional Record".
United States Congressional Record Permanent Digital Collection Part B: 1998-2001 TRIAL
United States Congressional Record Permanent Digital Collection Part D: 2006-2009 TRIAL
United States Congressional Research
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Part of ProQuest Congressional. Combines two separate files: CRS Reports, 1916-present; and Committee Prints, 1830-present. CRS Reports are produced by the Congressional Research Service, an official arm of the United States Congress, in response to requests from Congress. Committee Prints are studies and reports produced for specific Congressional committees. Both CRS Reports and Committee Prints are used to support Congressmen and Congresswomen in their legislative work. Part of ProQuest Congressional. Navigate to "Advanced Search" and select file "CRS Reports".
United States Congressional Serial Set
A collection of Congressional "Reports" and "Documents". A Congressional Report is an official report to the House of Representatives or the Senate, issued by a House or Senate committee, usually related to legislation about to be considered by Congress. Congressional Documents, on the other hand, are typically reports to Congress by Executive Branch departments, but can also include documents received by Congress from other sources. Congress began publishing the Serial Set in 1817. The predecessor to the Serial Set was the National State Papers of the United States, also known as the American State Papers. The American State Papers cover the years 1789-1817, and then were published alongside the Serial Set until 1838. The Serial Set and the American State Papers are also available through ProQuest Congressional. ProQuest Congressional's version of the Serial Set includes the most recent volumes, whereas the version linked above (Readex) ends with the volumes for the 96th Congress in 1980.

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To access the Serial Set in ProQuest Congressional, select the "House and Senate Documents/Reports" file in the Advanced Search Content selection box. (Last checked 4/9/2021)

Judicial Branch

The judicial branch, at all levels of government, is probably the least transparent, and its documents are often the most difficult to access.

Making of Modern Law: U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832-1978
Almost 150,000 Supreme Court cases are featured, the majority consisting of those for which the Court did not give a full opinion. Digitized from the holdings of the Jenkins Memorial Law Library, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the the Library of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.
Making of Modern Law: Trials, 1600-1926
Unofficially published accounts of trials; official trial documents, briefs and arguments; and official records of legislative proceedings, administrative proceedings and arbitrations that document Anglo-American trials, with coverage of the British Empire. Digitized from the collections at Harvard University, Yale University, and the Bar of the City of New York.

Other Collections

Making of Modern Law: Primary Sources, 1620-1926
Published records of the American colonies, documents published by state constitutional conventions, state codes, city charters, law dictionaries, digests and more.
CQ Voting and Elections Collection
TRIAL. 1789-present. See also the two Electing the President collections in Archives Unbound for party platforms and other information.
Law and Society since the Civil War: American Legal Manuscripts from the Harvard Law School Library, 1861-1976 TRIAL
Digitized from the following microfilm collections: Albert Levitt Papers; Felix Frankfurter Papers, Part I: United States Supreme Court, Case Files of Opinions and Memoranda, October Terms 1938-1952; Felix Frankfurter Papers, Part II: United States Supreme Court, Case Files of Opinions and Memoranda, October Terms 1953-1961; Felix Frankfurter Papers, Part III: Correspondence and Related Material; Livingston Hall Papers; Louis Dembitz Brandeis Papers, Part 1: United States Supreme Court, October Terms 1916-1931; Louis Dembitz Brandeis Papers, Part 2: United States Supreme Court, October Terms 1932-1938; Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Papers; Richard H. Field Papers; Roscoe Pound Papers, Part I: Correspondence, 1907-1964; Roscoe Pound Papers, Part II: Writings, Lectures, Addresses, Teaching Notes, and Miscellaneous Manuscripts; Roscoe Pound Papers, Part III: Personal, Biographical, Bibliographical, Miscellany, and Activities; Sacco-Vanzetti Case Papers; Sheldon Glueck Papers; William H. Hastie Papers, Part I: Judicial Activities; William H. Hastie Papers, Part II: Civil Rights, Organizational, and Private Activities; and Zechariah Chafee Jr. Papers.
Progressive Era: Robert M. La Follette Papers, 1879-1924 TRIAL
The Robert M. La Follette Papers from the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Immigration: Records of the INS, 1880-1930 TRIAL
Digitized from the following microfilm collections: Series A: Subject Correspondence Files, Part 1: Asian Immigration and Exclusion, 1906-1913; Series A: Subject Correspondence Files, Part 1: Supplement: Asian Immigration and Exclusion, 1898-1941; Series A: Subject Correspondence Files, Part 2: Mexican Immigration, 1906-1930; Series A: Subject Correspondence Files, Part 3: Ellis Island, 1900-1933; Series A: Subject Correspondence Files, Part 4: European Investigations, 1898-1936; Series A: Subject Correspondence Files, Part 5: Prostitution and White Slavery, 1902-1933; Series A: Subject Correspondence Files, Part 6: Suppression of Aliens, 1906-1930; and Voices from Ellis Island: An Oral History of American Immigration.
New Deal and World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Office Files and Records of Federal Agencies, 1933-1945 TRIAL
Digitized from the following microfilm collections: FBI Reports of the Franklin D. Roosevelt White House; President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Office Files, 1933-1945, Part 1: Safe and Confidential Files; President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Office Files, 1933-1945, Part 2: Diplomatic Correspondence File; President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Office Files, 1933-1945, Part 3: Departmental Correspondence File; President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Office Files, 1933-1945, Part 4: Subject Files; President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Office Files, 1933-1945, Part 5: The John Franklin Carter Files on German Nazi Party Members; Presidential Documentary History Collection; Records of the Civilian Conservation Corps: Division of Planning and Public Relations, Press Releases, April 1933-December 1941; Records of the Committee on Economic Security: Planning for a Social Security System, 1934-1935; and U.S. National Economy: Unpublished Documentary Collections from the U.S. Department of the Treasury: Roosevelt Administration-Truman Administration, 1933-1953.
American Politics in the Early Cold War: Truman and Eisenhower Administrations, 1945-1961 TRIAL
Digitized from the following microfilm collections: Confidential Files of the Eisenhower White House, 1953-1961, Part 1: Subject Files; Confidential Files of the Eisenhower White House, 1953-1961, Part 2: Presidential Trips and Conferences; Confidential Files of the Eisenhower White House, 1953-1961, Part 3: Departments and Agencies; Diaries of Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953-1961; Documentary History of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidency; Documentary History of the Harry S. Truman Presidency; Harry S. Truman Oral Histories Collection; Minutes and Documents of the Cabinet Meetings of President Eisenhower, 1953-1961; Papers of the President's Science Advisory Committee, 1957-1961; President Dwight D. Eisenhower Office Files, 1953-1961, Part 2: International Series; President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Office Files, 1953-1961, Part 1: Eisenhower Administration Series; President Eisenhower's Meetings with Legislative Leaders, 1953-1961; President Harry S. Truman's Office Files, 1945-1953, Part 1: Political File; President Harry S. Truman's Office Files, 1945-1953, Part 2: Correspondence File; President Harry S. Truman's Office Files, 1945-1953, Part 3: Subject File; President Harry S. Truman's Office Files, 1945-1953, Part 4: Korean War Files; President Harry S. Truman's Office Files, 1945-1953, Part 5: Truman Diaries and Handwritten Notes Files; U.S. National Economy: Unpublished Documentary Collections from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Part 3: Eisenhower Administration (1953-1961).
American Politics and Society from Kennedy to Watergate, 1960-1975
TRIAL. Digitized from dozens of record collections that document various aspects of American history in the 1960s and 1970s. See below for more detailed information. Part of ProQuest History Vault.

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Aeronautics and Space Reports to the Congress, 1958-1984; Appointment Book of President Kennedy, 1961-1963; Associated Press, Cape Canaveral Bureau Records, 1959-2000; Associated Press, Wire Copy on the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy; Bureau of the Budget Bill Reports: Public Laws, 87th and 88th Congresses; Citizens Advisory Council on the Status of Women, 1963-1977, Part 1: White House Files, Meetings, and Records of Task Forces; Citizens Advisory Council on the Status of Women, 1963-1977, Part 2: Subject Files; Civil Rights in the 1970s: Publications and Reports of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1973-1976; Confidential File of the Johnson White House, 1963-1969, Part 1: Confidential Subject and Name Files; Confidential File of the Johnson White House, 1963-1969, Part 2: Confidential Reports File; Council of Economic Advisers under President Johnson; Daily Diary of President Johnson, 1963-1969; Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1963-1969: Official History and Documents, Part I: History; Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1963-1969: Official History and Documents, Part II: Documents; Environmental Protection Agency: Records on Automobile Emissions Standards; Environmental Protection Agency: Records on the Health and Ecological Effects of Pollution, 1971-1977; FBI Files on the American Indian Movement and Wounded Knee; FBI Files on the Weather Underground Organization; FBI Files on White Extremist Organizations; History of the Department of Justice, 1963-1969; History of the Federal Trade Commission, November 1963-January 1969; John F. Kennedy 1960 Campaign, Part 1: Polls, Issues, and Strategy; John F. Kennedy 1960 Campaign, Part 2: Speeches, Press Conferences, and Debates; Johnson Administration's Response to Anti-Vietnam War Activities, Part 1: White House Aides' Files; Johnson Administration's Response to Anti-Vietnam War Activities, Part 2: White House Central Files; Minutes and Documents of the Cabinet Meetings of President Johnson; National Economy Under President Johnson: Administrative Histories; Oral Histories of the Johnson Administration, 1963-1969, Part I: The White House and Executive Departments; Oral Histories of the Johnson Administration, 1963-1969, Part II: The Congress, the Judiciary, Public Figures, and Private Individuals; Papers from the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection at the National Archives, Part 2: Church Committee Investigation, Section A: General Files; Papers from the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection at the National Archives, Part 2: Church Committee Investigation, Section B: Testimony; Papers of Dean F. Markham and the President's Advisory Commission on Narcotics, 1962-1963; Papers of the Nixon White House, Part 1: Official Inventories of Papers and Other Historical Materials of the Nixon White House; Papers of the Nixon White House, Part 2: The President's Meeting File, 1969-1974 ;Papers of the Nixon White House, Part 3: John Ehrlichman, Notes of Meetings with the President, 1969-1973; Papers of the Nixon White House, Part 4: The John Ehrlichman Alphabetical Subject File, 1969-1973; Papers of the Nixon White House, Part 5: H. R. Haldeman, Notes of White House Meetings, 1969-1973; Papers of the Nixon White House, Part 6: The President's Office Files, Series A: Documents Annotated by the President, 1969-1974; Papers of the Nixon White House, Part 6: The President's Office Files, Series B: Daily News Summaries Annotated by the President, 1969-1973; Papers of the Nixon White House, Part 7: President's Personal Files, 1969-1974; Papers of the Nixon White House, Part 8: The Nixon White House Tapes, The Complete Transcripts Prepared by the Watergate Special Prosecution Force; Political Activities of the Johnson White House, 1963-1969, Part 1: White House Central and Confidential Files; Political Activities of the Johnson White House, 1963-1969, Part 2: White House Aides, Series A. Office Files of Marvin Watson; President John F. Kennedy's Office Files, 1961-1963, Part 1: Special Correspondence, Speech, Legislative, and Press Conference Files; President John F. Kennedy's Office Files, 1961-1963, Part 2: Staff Memoranda File; President John F. Kennedy's Office Files, 1961-1963, Part 3: Departments and Agencies File; President John F. Kennedy's Office Files, 1961-1963, Part 4: Subjects File; President John F. Kennedy's Office Files, 1961-1963, Part 5: Countries File; President Kennedy and the Press, 1961-1963; President's Commission on Campus Unrest, Part 1: Executive Files; President's Commission on the Status of Women; Records of President Johnson's Commission on Law Enforcement, Part 1: Commission Correspondence and Memoranda; Records of the Department of Justice: The Cabinet Committee on Drug Law Enforcement, 1976-1977; Records of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse, 1970-1973; Records of the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, Part 1: Executive Files; Records of the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, Part 2: Special Investigations; Records of the National Council on Indian Opportunity, 1968-1974, Part 1: A-C; Records of the National Council on Indian Opportunity, 1968-1974, Part 2: D-K; Records of the National Council on Indian Opportunity, 1968-1974, Part 3: L-R; Records of the National Council on Indian Opportunity, 1968-1974, Part 4: S-Z; Records of the National Council on Indian Opportunity, 1968-1974, Part 5: Miscellaneous Files and Publications; Task Force Reports of the Johnson White House, 1963-1969; U.S. Army Surveillance of Dissidents, 1965-1972: Records of the U.S. Army's ACSI Task Force; U.S. Council of Economic Advisers during the Ford Administration, Part 1: Alan Greenspan Files, Correspondence, 1974-1977; U.S. Council of Economic Advisers during the Ford Administration, Part 2: Alan Greenspan Files, Subject File: Economic Policy Board Meetings, Speeches and Statements, and Engagements and Meetings, 1974-1976; U.S. Council of Economic Advisers during the Ford Administration, Part 3: Gary L. Seevers Files, 1973-1975; U.S. Council of Economic Advisers during the Ford Administration, Part 5: Burton G. Malkiel Files, 1975-1977; U.S. Council of Economic Advisers during the Ford Administration, Part 6: Staff Economists Files, 1973-1977; U.S. Council of Economic Advisors during the Ford Administration, Part 4: William J. Fellner and Paul W. MacAvoy Files, 1973-1976; U.S. National Economy: Unpublished Documentary Collections from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Part 4: Kennedy Administration-Johnson Administration, 1961-1969; U.S. National Economy: Unpublished Documentary Collections from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Part 5: Nixon Administration-Ford Administration, 1969-1977; War on Poverty, 1964-1968, Part 1: The White House Central Files; War on Poverty, 1964-1968, Part 2: Records of the President's National Advisory Commission on Rural Poverty, 1966-1967; War on Poverty, 1964-1968, Part 3: White House Aides Files (Bellinger through Humphrey); War on Poverty, 1964-1968, Part 4: White House Aides Files (McPherson through Wilson); War on Poverty, 1964-1968, Part 5: White House Central Files, Welfare and the Poverty Program Subject Files; Watergate in Court: United States v. George Gordon Liddy, Everett Howard Hunt, James W. McCord, Bernard L. Barker, Eugenio R. Martinez, et al.; Watergate in Court: United States v. John B. Connally ; Watergate in Court: United States v. John D. Ehrlichman, Charles W. Colson, G. Gordon Liddy, Bernard L. Barker, Felipe De Diego, Eugenio R. Martinez; and Watergate in Court: United States v. John N. Mitchell, Harry R. Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman, Robert C. Mardian, Kenneth W. Parkinson.