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U.S. foreign relations materials in the pre-1861 U.S. Congressional Serial Set

The Foreign Relations of the United States began publication in 1861. Prior to that time, the U.S. government released documents through a variety of means. One of those means was the U.S. Congressional Serial Set, which began publication in 1817. Your local library may hold the Serial Set or subscribe to an electronic database which contains these documents. There are two indexes of the foreign relations materials in the Serial Set. Between 1914 and 1921, Adelaide Rosalia Hasse compiled a three-volume Index to United States Documents Relating to Foreign Affairs, 1828-1861, available online in full text via HathiTrust. In 2012, the Office of the Historian compiled this much shorter index of the foreign affairs material in the Serial Set. A substantial portion of the research for this resource was carried out by Dawn Whitehead (Virtual Student Foreign Service E-Intern, Academic Year 2011-12).

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