John Adams served as an elected member of the First and Second Continental Congresses, a U.S. diplomat, vice president under George Washington, and second president of the United States (1797-1801). This series primarily consists of select letters written by Adams from 1775 to 1816. Recipients include prominent Americans such as John Jay (1745-1829), James Madison (1749-1812), Benjamin Rush (1746-1813), and John Trumbull (1750-1831)—who received over a third of the letters in this collection. Subject matter is nearly always political in nature whether official government communication or personal correspondence. Also included are three miscellaneous documents signed by Adams. The series is arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent with the three miscellaneous documents housed in Box 46 (oversize). Many of the letters have been published in multi-volume series devoted to Adams. Two such sources were consulted in the preparation of this finding aid:

HUP - Papers of John Adams, The Adams Papers Series (Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1977-2006).

BLP - The Works of John Adams, Select Bibliographies Reprint Series (1850-56; Reprinted Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1969).

Letters in this collection that are published in either of these series contain a bracketed notation in the item description including the above designated abbreviations (by publisher), volume, and page number. Since Adams often wrote multiple copies of his letters as well as kept a letter-book, multiple institutions may own copies of the same letter. An asterisk (*) in the item description designates the citing of this specific copy of the letter. RC indicates the item is the original recipient's copy.