Permission to Publish or Reproduce the Adams Family Papers
In 1956, the Adams Manuscript Trust transferred all rights to the Adams Family Papers manuscript collection to the Massachusetts Historical Society. Prior to the formal transfer of ownership, the MHS microfilmed the portion of the papers dating from 1639 to 1889. Research libraries and historical institutions around the world hold the 608-reel Microfilms of the Adams Papers. Click here for a list of libraries holding the microfilm edition.
The MHS is the sponsor of the Adams Papers Editorial Project. Since 1961, the editorial project has published more than 55 volumes of The Adams Papers. Click here for a complete list of published volumes.
In recent years, the MHS also has displayed digital facsimiles and transcriptions of Adams Family Papers manuscripts at its website, http://8txkca.bominshizhen.com/adams/read, including materials drawn from both the microfilm and print editions of the papers.
The MHS owns the Adams Family Papers and holds the copyright to both the print and microfilm editions of the Papers. There are separate guidelines for securing permission to reproduce materials from the microfilm and print editions, and from the MHS website:
-
Requests for permission to reproduce documents in any form from the Microfilms of the Adams Papers should be directed to the MHS Reader Services staff. Requests for permission to reproduce text or images from the MHS website in any form also should be directed to the MHS Reader Services staff. Click here for further information on using manuscripts at the MHS.
-
Requests to reproduce text or images in any form from The Adams Papers, the print edition of the Adams Family Papers edited by the Adams Papers Editorial Project and published by the Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, should be directed to Copyright and Permissions at Harvard University Press, 79 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
If you have further questions concerning permission to publish from the Adams Family Papers manuscript collection, the print or microfilm editions of it, or the MHS website, please contact the MHS Reader Services staff.
