5. Reprints of Collected Sources on the Colonies and the Revolution
NEARLY all the important early works have been reprinted, sometimes verbatim, oftener with corrections of spelling and grammar. Many such reprints are made by historical societies ; others are gathered in series, as Rider's Rhode Island Historical Tracts, and Munsell's Historical Series. Others appear in special reprint editions, with introduction and notes by a special editor. A few have been facsimiled, notably the Declaration of Independence (Force, American Archives, Fifth Series, I, 1597, and elsewhere). For making transcripts or for verifying a passage, the original edition is always preferable even to a careful reprint.
For many of the separate colonies there are collections of documents, which may be found through Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, II-V, and Channing and Hart, Guide to American History, § § 23, 29. There are also several valuable collections of related documents, some of which are enumerated below. The colonial collections specially mentioned contain many documents concerning all the colonies. The titles in this list do not include collections of sources bearing exclusively on the history of a single colony, nor do they contain colonial archives, or the many valuable collections of state and local historical societies. Such material may be found through Channing and Hart, Guide, § § 23, 29, 31, 34, 77-130, and through A. P. C. Griffin, Bibliography of American Historical Societies (in American Historical Association, Report for 1895). Tyler, in his American Literature and Literary History of the Revolution (No. 15), gives lists of sources.
John Almon, A Collection of Interesting Authentic Papers, relative to the Dispute between Great Britain and America, shewing the Causes and Progress of that Misunderstanding, front 1764 to 1775. London, 1777. — Always cited as the Prior Documents.
John Almon, The Remembrancer, or Impartial Repository of Public Events. 17 vols. London, 1775-1784. — Vols. XII-XVII edited by John Debrett.
The Annual Register, or a View of the History, Politicks, and Literature, for the Year 1758. London, 1759-. — This series has been continued annually, to the present time. It includes a narrative history of the year, and republications of contemporary letters and other material.
