Document Selection
Documents chosen for this project help show the complicated world that James Monroe lived in and the many roles he played during his lifetime. To date, these materials include Monroe’s own letters, papers, and related correspondence. The documents reveal his long career in public service, his extensive landholdings, and his connections to the 175 enslaved people who lived and worked on his lands. Together, these records offer new perspectives on Monroe and his era.
Selection Criteria
WJMO provides access to entire collections, instead of curated document sets. The scope is defined broadly to include original documents drafted by Monroe, correspondence written to him, and related letters from his contemporaries that shed light on his activities and relationships. The goal is to present entire archival collections rather than selectively curated document sets, so editorial selection for this project has been intentionally limited.
Documents excluded from the project include routine or standardized material created through the course of Monroe’s business as a lawyer and official duties, such as land grants, commissions, appointments, minute books, and Board of Visitors records. As these were part of Monroe’s official duties, the documents offer little biographical or interpretive insight.
Non-original materials such as typescripts, photocopies, and documents only available on microfilm are also excluded.
Transcription & Editorial Policy
The World of James Monroe Online approaches document transcription with minimal editorial intervention to present the content in full and provide readable text that supports both accessibility and full-text searchability.
There are three steps to the process; transcription, review, and upload: 1) documents are transcribed by a dedicated volunteer using the project’s transcription conventions, 2) transcriptions are reviewed by the project team, 3) transcripts and document images are uploaded to the site.
Editorial treatment of the transcripts provide a standard heading, from X to Y and dateline at top that include place and date. Address information found in the document is not transcribed. Documents are double space with text wrapped so original line breaks are not retained. Postscripts are encoded separately. Citations note original document title and collection and are footnoted. Docketing and addresses are added to citation notes.
Transcription conventions are simple-
- Original spelling and capitalization is retained.
- Dashes at the end of sentences are retained, and not regularized as periods.
- Use of single tab for all paragraphs
- Uncertain words are noted as [?]
- Illegible, use <...>
- Superscripts are retained with "." but the underlines are ignored
- Stuck out text is ignored, not transcribed as deletions.
- Text in another hand is not noted.