Multi-Media Review: Letters of Delegates to Congress 1774 to 1789: AH

LETTERS OF DELEGATES TO CONGRESS 1774 TO 1789
(Historical Database, $175.00). Those interested in how the two sessions of the Continental Congress and later government under the Articles of Confederation guided the rebellious American colonies first to independence and then through the Revolutionary War to self-government between 1774 and 1789 may call on 22 volumes of letters exchanged by delegates to those assemblies, which have recently been published on CD-ROM for Windows. The compilation of the volumes contained in this program originated with a grant awarded by the Ford Foundation to the Library of Congress in 1970 to allow that institution to supplement Edmund C. Burnett’s 1941 Letters of Members of the Continental Congress, which contained only about one third of some 18,000 documents. The letters were penned by delegates to representatives from other states and to their wives, sweethearts, friends, or political adversaries. Also included are diary entries, directives from Congressional committees, a chronology listing events that occurred during the period covered by each volume, and biographical information on each delegate. A total of 25 volumes, plus a separate index, is projected, with the additional material being made available to purchasers upon completion.