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Because of the complexities and the costs of preparing and digitizing rare materials, some collections do not have a full complement of search features.

Collections with full-text searching only:

American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940

Search by keyword or select from a list of titles for the 24 states where life histories were gathered. The individual interviews have no descriptive (bibliographic) information or subject terms, so searchers must be creative and persistent by using a variety of terms. Although the life histories were gathered in 24 states, the content contains references to many more states, and to a larger time frame than the dates would indicate.

Collections with selective full-text searching:

The American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment, 1870-1920

Browse Subject or Author indexes or search by keyword. Playscripts and playbills have been digitized as images but are not transcribed, thus not full-text searchable. The Yiddish-language playscripts are not translated, but the Subject headings are in English. The ten sound recordings are not searchable, but have a browsable Title List.

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1873

This collection is a work in progress, currently comprising nine titles covering the Continental Congress and the 1-16th Congresses (1774-1821). The search is blended, with descriptive information of the Annals of Congress and Statutes at Large plus the full-text of the other titles. The Annals of Congress are reproduced as facsimile images only. The contents are made accessible via the entries in the House and Senate Journals, which link by date to the Annals. The indexes and the page headings of the Annals are also searchable.

The George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress

Search by keyword in descriptive information for Series 2 and 3 letterbooks, Series 4 General Correspondence, Series 5 Financial Papers, Series 6 Military Papers, Series 7 Applications for Office, and Series 8 Miscellaneous Papers. Included in the search are full texts of parts of Series 2, 3, 5, and 8. The text is a direct transcription of the letterbooks as written in the eighteenth century. Spelling has not been modernized.

The Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress

The collection contains nine series. The First Release contains the first installment of Series 1, General Correspondence, 1621-1789, and all of Series 8, relating to Virginia history, 1606-1737. Search the combined descriptive information and portions of Series 1 full text or browse the collection by series.

Non-searchable collections:

The African American Odyssey

This multi-format collection began as an exhibit at the Library of Congress. Browse the table of contents to find topics of interest.

The Leonard Bernstein Collection, ca. 1920-1989

A preview of a multi-format collection to contain photographs, correspondence and manuscripts, and audio and video recordings. Browse a photograph gallery presented chronologically.

Mr. Lincoln's Virtual Library

A preview of a collection consisting of documents and other resources selected from two Library division collections. Browse the Emancipation Proclamation and The Lincoln Assassination.

The New Deal Stage: Selections from the Federal Theatre Project, 1935-1939

Individual items have not been cataloged, nor the texts transcribed for searching. Browse through item lists for each play, arranged by performance date. Included are such topics as set designs, photos, programs, sound, and publicity.

Poet at Work: Recovered Notebooks from the Thomas Biggs Harned Walt Whitman Collection

Notebook pages appear as Whitman wrote them, with no table of contents or subject index. A page turner function is the only form of navigation.

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Last updated 09/26/2002