Mississippi State University at Starkville is the Home of the U. S. Grant Presidential Library and the U. S. Grant Papers.
You can search the digital collections (including the Grant papers) and learn more about the Library at their website.
For materials and reference assistance, please visit this website.
You can request materials or ask the staff questions.
Mississippi's Ironic Presidential Library.
The current Executive Director of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library and Museum at Mississippi State University / Ulysses S. Grant Association is Dr. Anne Marshall, Ph.D. University of Georgia.
The first Executive Director of the Ulysses S. Grant Association's Grant Presidential Library at Mississippi State University & Managing Editor of the Ulysses S. Grant Papers project at Mississippi State was Professor John F. Marszalek, from 2008 to 2022.
This extraordinary publishing venture, The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, was carried out primarily at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, by the esteemed professor of history Dr. John Y. Simon. Beginning in 1962, Dr. Simon commenced work on a documentary edition of Grant's papers and continued until his death in 2008. In 2004 Dr. Simon was awarded a special Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize for his monumental achievement in documentary editing, a feat making it possible for anyone to glean insight from primary documents created by Ulysses S. Grant throughout his life. His love for his wife, his early Army years, his difficulties in the St. Louis area, his spectacular lift from obscurity as the general who saved the Union and became President of the United States. It is all here.
Perspectives, a journal of research and creative activities at Southern Illinois, carried a lengthy article on Professor Simon and the history of the Grant project. Please enjoy reading this article at this link.
The digitized Papers of Ulysses S. Paper may be accessed through the Mitchell Memorial Library at Mississippi State University at this link.
The digitized Papers of Ulysses S. Paper may be accessed through the Mitchell Memorial Library at Mississippi State University at this link.
Letters of Ulysses S. Grant to His Father and Youngest Sister. Full text in Google Books.
Ulysses S. Grant, Conversations and Unpublished Letters, by M. J. Cramer (Grant's brother-in-law). Full text in Google Books.
Newspaper accounts may be seen as primary sources, but one cannot take everything in a newspaper as the unquestioned truth. Journalists make mistakes and incorrect information does make its way into print. Still, newspapers often have material that you will not find in books. Unique tidbits about the subject's whereabouts, actions, words, and associates at a particular point in time are the meat of news reporting.
Grant got around...a lot. In his adult life, the residence he occupied for the longest stretch of time was the 8 years he spent in the White House. Outside of those years, he moved constantly and was in the public eye for 25 years. His actions, travels, associates and his family were all grist for the journalistic mill.
If you are looking for material on Grant in newspapers, be aware that not all newspapers are indexed, so it is not always going to be easy to find news items. Fortunately, there are both free and commercial indexing ventures of 19th century newspapers that can reveal some real gems of information.
Resources
Chronicling America: American Historical Newspapers. Free.
United States Digital Newspapers List With Links. Free.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Free.
The Historical New York Times, Proquest. Subscription. Check your local or state library.
19th Century American Newspapers. Subscription. Check your local or state library.
Newspapers.com Get a personal subscription.
Check your public library for newspaper resources they might have available online.
Newsletters from the Ulysses S. Grant Association, 1963-1973 and 2013-
Newsletters from the Ulysses S. Grant Network, 1995- 2004.
Mississippi State University's Digital Collections offers an historical (not up-to-date) bibliography of books, pamphlets, and articles about Grant, free, online.
Purchase from ABC-Clio, Ulysses S. Grant: a Bibliography, by Marie Kelsey, 2005. This book was recognized as a Best Bibliography in History by the Reference and Users' Services Association, a division of the American Library Association. Find a 2022 update to this bibliography free, in the box above.
The Making of America website
Google Books - Full text 19th century books
HathiTrust Digital Library - Full text of Public Domain Books and Journals. Full text search capability makes this an invaluable resource for locating 19th and early 20th century journal articles about Ulysses S. Grant and people associated with him.
Internet Archive - Large variety of types of publications, digitized.
Open Library - Thousands of ebooks to check out.
Digital Public Library of America - Items from libraries, archives and museums.
Ohio History Journal, 1887-2004. Ohio History Journal was established in June 1887 as the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly. For more than one hundred years, the journal has published peer-reviewed articles and book reviews on topics spanning the political, military, social, economic and cultural history of Ohio.
The American Presidency Project from UC Santa Barbara.
The Library of Congress Digitized Grant resources, including his papers and many other types of material.
The Library of Congress Resource Guide to Ulysses S. Grant
The Bulldog Could Have Been Grant's Mascot Too
In the summer of 1864 Grant was chasing Lee's forces down through Virginia and was reluctant to use any of his troops elsewhere. Lincoln agreed. On August 17th, he wrote this admonishment to Grant:
I have seen your dispatch expressing your unwillingness to break your hold where you are. Neither am I willing. Hold on with a bull-dog grip and chew & choke, as much as possible.
