The University decided last Friday to move the Papers of the George Washington Project, a comprehensive publication of the first president's papers and correspondence, to Mount Vernon's new Library for the Study of George Washington.
The project, which was established in 1968 as a collaborative effort between the University and Mount Vernon, currently contains an excess of 135,000 copies of documents, said Theodore Crackel, editor-in-chief of the project. Crackel expects the project to come to a close in 2023, at which point the expected 90 volumes of documents will be transferred to the new library at Mount Vernon.
Though the completion of the project is scheduled for 2023, the new library will open in 2012, said Emily Coleman Dibella, director of media relations at Mount Vernon.
Crackel and others at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library began exploring the idea of donating Washington's documents to his historic plantation home when the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association began discussing the construction of a library at Mount Vernon.
"When [the association] started talking about a library, I pointed out that I'd be glad to donate these copies of documents we've accumulated," Crackel said. "The Special Collections Library at Alderman only takes originals, and the new library at Mount Vernon obviously could use them."
The library has been in the works for a number of years, Dibella said. Apart from the donation from the University, the library has welcomed other outside gifts, which have made the creation of the institution a reality, she added.
"With the $30 million contribution from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation and our own campaign efforts, the concept has become achievable."
Crackel said Washington had the desire to build a library of his own, according to a letter from the first president, for his own "military, civil and private papers."
"Now the people at Mount Vernon will make Washington's dream possible," he said.
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