Purpose
The World of James Monroe Online (WJMO) broadens access to the written record of James Monroe, advancing scholarship on the fifth President of the United States and the complex world in which he lived. This digital resource provides free, open access to original documents alongside full-text transcriptions in a searchable platform designed for a wide audience—from advanced scholars to students, educators, and the public.
By bringing together correspondence and documents related to Monroe’s political and financial dealings, landholdings, family life, and the more than 175 enslaved individuals connected to him, WJMO constructs a fuller, more nuanced view of his world. Leveraging the capabilities of the digital environment, the project offers a comprehensive and inclusive model for documentary access that fosters ongoing research and historical understanding.
To achieve these goals, WJMO incorporates several core features:
- Free Online Access to manuscripts and transcriptions, removing barriers and reaching a global audience.
- High-Resolution Images of source documents, promoting transparency and enabling close reading and interpretation.
- Authentic Text Presentation, pairing images with transcriptions that preserve original language, spelling, and structure with minimal editorial intervention.
- A Searchable, User-Friendly Platform designed for researchers, educators, and learners across disciplines and experience levels.
- Comprehensive Collections that unite complete sets of documents from multiple archival repositories into an interconnected digital resource.
WJMO complements and extends the editorial work of the Papers of James Monroe at the University of Mary Washington, creating a dynamic partnership between traditional documentary editing and digital scholarship.