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Vol. 25:2 ISSN 0160-8460 Summer 1997
NHPRC's The Emerging Nation Wins 1997 Thomas Jefferson Prize from the Society for History in the Federal Government
On April 4, 1997, the Society for History in the Federal Government awarded its Thomas Jefferson Prize for 1997 to National Historical Publications and Records Commission staff members Mary A. Giunta and J. Dane Hartgrove for their work on the Commission's in-house documentary publication, The Emerging Nation: A Documentary History of the Foreign Relations of the United States under the Articles of Confederation, 1780-1789 (Washington: National Historical Publications and Records Commission, 1996). The conferral of the award, which took place at the Society's annual meeting, included the reading of the following words from the accompanying certificate: "Judged on the basis of research, style, and thoroughness of presentation to be an outstanding contribution to research in the history of the Federal Government for 1997."
In accepting the award, Editor-in-Chief Mary A. Giunta praised the work of Associate Editor J. Dane Hartgrove, especially in the collection of historical materials from various repositories and NHPRC-sponsored projects and in the editorial phase of the undertaking. She also paid
Editors J. Dane Hartgrove and Mary Giunta accept the Thomas Jefferson Prize from Frank Burke at the annual meeting of the Society for History in the Federal Government.
special tribute to the more than 20 National Archives and Records Administration volunteers who worked on the project, providing over 9,300 hours of unpaid labor. The participation of the volunteers proved crucial to the completion of the project.
The three volumes of The Emerging Nation serve as a scholarly introduction to the history of early United States diplomacy. They bring together documents from U.S. and foreign archives and manuscript repositories, many for the first time in English. The publication contains more than 1800 documents drawn from 16 repositories and six historical editions. Roughly 46 percent of the documents are from the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration, primarily from Record Group 360: Papers of the Continental and Confederation Congresses and the Constitutional Convention. Approximately 23 percent are from the French Foreign Affairs Archives and the British Public Record Office. Major personal manuscript sources include the papers of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, David Hartley, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, Henry Laurens, Robert Morris, Richard Oswald, and William Petty, Earl of Shelburne.
The three scholarly volumes of The Emerging Nation are available through the Government Printing Office (GPO). Volume I ($44), Volume II ($46), and Volume III ($43) may be ordered by telephone on weekdays (202-512-1800) from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. eastern time or by fax (202-512- 2250) 24 hours a day. Telephone and fax orders may be paid by MasterCard or VISA. Mail orders must include either credit card information or a check payable to the Superintendent of Documents, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954.
