Presidents 60 Digitalst library of Congress.

A more than two decade-long initiative to digitize the papers of nearly two dozen early presidents has been completed by the Library of Congress, which holds the papers of 23 presidents from George Washington to Calvin Coolidge.

"Arguably, no other body of material in the Manuscript Division is of greater significance for the study of American history than the presidential collections," says division chief Janice E. Ruth. "They cover the entire sweep of American history from the nation's founding through the first decade after World War I, including periods of prosperity and depression, war and peace, unity of purpose and political and civil strife."

These holdings are of such significant value that Congress enacted a law in 1957 directing the Library to arrange, index, and microfilm the papers, an enormous job that concluded in 1976. With the dawn of the digital age, the collections of presidential papers were among the first manuscripts proposed for digitization. The conclusion of this effort marks the addition of more than 3,300,000 images to the Library's online archives.

"The writings and records of America's presidents are an invaluable source of information on world events, and many of these...