Carrollton (MS) Whig Creed, December 6, 1845 (Library of Congress)
February 11, 2025
Now you can listen to our blog! Thanks to Kate E. Hutchinson, a communications professional who has volunteered to read and record the blog entries, you will now find an audio version at the top of the two most recent ones. More will follow. As with the documents we’re publishing, we’re eager to make this website as widely accessible as possible.
December 10, 2024
Fantastic news! The National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives has awarded our project a grant of $124,097 for 2025–26. This is the largest grant that our project has ever received. We are honored by the NHPRC’s generous support, since our launch in 2020, for our efforts to expand access to primary sources by Taylor, Fillmore, and their diverse correspondents in antebellum America. You can read about this and the NHPRC’s other new grants in its press release and its latest newsletter.
November 26, 2024
Our editor, Michael David Cohen, just published an article: “Campaigning on the Constitution: Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, and the Presidential Election of 1848.” You can read it for free in the University of St. Thomas Journal of Law & Public Policy.
November 22, 2024
We’re excited to join LinkedIn! Whether you’re an editorial colleague or a historically fascinated reader (as we are), please follow us @TaylorandFillmore here.
September 26, 2024
We’re delighted and grateful to share that The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, as part of its Humanities Program, has announced a $10,000 grant to support our project in 2025–26. This will enable us to continue expanding access to Taylor’s and Fillmore’s letters.
August 1, 2024
We congratulate David C. Barker, our Advisory Board chair, on his new position as director of the National Science Foundation’s Division of Social and Economic Sciences! Yesterday he concluded his time as director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, during which he guided the launch and growth of the Taylor-Fillmore project. We thank him for his ongoing support!
April 25, 2024
We’re now on Threads! You can follow @ZTandMF both there and on our longstanding X account.
March 4, 2024
We’re pleased to announce the formation of our new Advisory Board. We thank these experts in US history, public engagement, and digital technology for agreeing to advise our project.
February 21, 2024
On today’s episode of the American History Gazette podcast, host Jake Suggs speaks with our editor about Taylor’s life and career. Watch on our Videos & Podcasts page.
February 15, 2024
On today’s episode of the Myhistoryvibe podcast, host Carlton Houston speaks with our editor about the Taylor-Fillmore project and Taylor’s relationships with the Black Americans he enslaved. Mr. Houston is a descendant of Taylor and an enslaved woman named Annie. Watch the conversation on our Videos & Podcasts page.
January 18, 2024
On today’s episode of the American History Hit podcast, host Don Wildman speaks with our editor about “President Millard Fillmore: The Most Handsome President?” You can listen on our Videos & Podcasts page.
December 1, 2023
Great news! The National Historical Publications and Records Commission has announced a $100,000 grant to support our work in 2023–24. We are grateful to the NHPRC staff and Commissioners and the Archivist of the United States for their hard work and consistent support of efforts to make historical documents widely accessible. You can read the press release and the list of grant recipients.
August 28, 2023
We’re delighted to welcome Jamshid Mohammadi, a Fulbright Scholar from Afghanistan studying comparative politics at American University’s School of Public Affairs, as our new editorial assistant!
June 22–25, 2023
With the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, we hosted our first event: the conference of the Association for Documentary Editing (ADE). The presentations on expanding access to historical and literary documents included a panel on first ladies’ papers by the First Ladies Association for Research and Education (FLARE); a breakfast talk by Mia Owens on her experience as American University’s graduate fellow on the History of Slavery and Its Legacies in Washington, DC; and a roundtable about history’s contemporary relevance, on which our editor discussed this website’s blog. At the keynote session, we welcomed Shelly Lowe, chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Linh Anh Moreau, coordinator of international programs on the Memory of the World at UNESCO, to discuss Public Humanities and Indigenous Voices. You can read more about the conference on its website.
Many of the sessions were recorded, and the ADE will soon post them on YouTube. Excitingly, C-SPAN joined us for the keynote and the session on history’s contemporary relevance. So you’ll get to see those on national television! We’ll share the air dates and times once we know them.
June 9, 2023
We’re delighted to share that The Summerlee Foundation has awarded us a $15,000 grant to support our work in 2024–25, when we will complete the manuscript of our first volume of Taylor’s and Fillmore’s letters (1844–48). Thank you!
November 23, 2022
Fantastic news! The National Historical Publications and Records Commission has awarded us a $115,500 grant for 2023–24. This Thanksgiving we’re grateful to the NHPRC and the National Archives for their consistent support of our work and of widespread efforts to make historical documents accessible. You can check out the press release and the list of grant recipients.
November 3, 2022
We’re thrilled to have been awarded a $10,000 Humanities Grant for 2023–24 by The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. Thank you! The Foundation’s continuing and generous support makes it possible for us to make primary sources in US history accessible to all.
August 29, 2022
We’re excited to welcome back Nicholas Breslin as our editorial assistant for the 2022–23 academic year!
June 11, 2022
Today our editor, Michael Cohen, joined four other documentary editors at the American Political History Conference for a roundtable on “Editing Documents in US Political History.” We’ll post the video soon.
May 12, 2022
We’re delighted to welcome Mercedes Atwater, an MA student in public administration at AU’s School of Public Affairs, as our new editorial assistant!
May 10, 2022
Feedspot has ranked our blog #32 on its new list of the “70 Best American History Blogs and Websites.” We’re honored!
April 13, 2022
The new issue of American Magazine, the alumni magazine of American University, features an article about our project’s recent experience helping Jeopardy! with a Fillmore clue!
March 22, 2022
Today Michael Cohen, our editor, spoke about Taylor and Fillmore in the Annual Presidential Lecture at Northwestern Oklahoma State University’s Institute for Citizenship Studies. You can watch the video here.
March 14, 2022
Are you a Jeopardy! fan? Today’s episode of the answer-and-question show featured a category titled “A Few Moments with Millard Fillmore.” We helped the writers with one of the clues, and host Ken Jennings gave our project a shout-out! Watch the whole category and test your own knowledge of the thirteenth president:
January 25, 2022
We’re delighted to welcome Nicholas Breslin, of American’s School of Public Affairs, and Ian Iverson, of the University of Virginia, to the project this semester as editorial assistants!
January 10, 2022
Today we published our first-ever teaching guide, on the US annexation of Texas. The guide features four previously unpublished Fillmore letters, introductions, and discussion and writing questions. Educators can use it to teach eleventh- or twelfth-grade students in US history to analyze primary sources. Anyone, of course, can now learn from the letters themselves.
November 22, 2021
Wonderful news: the National Historical Publications and Records Commission has awarded us a grant of $77,750 for 2022–23! We thank the Commissioners and the Archivist of the United States for enabling us, and the other funded projects, to continue expanding access to primary sources. You can see the NHPRC’s press release and list of recipients for more details.
November 4, 2021
We are delighted to have been awarded a $10,000 Humanities Grant for 2022–23 by The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. This generous award will support our work making primary documents accessible in print and online to students, scholars, and all interested in US history. Thank you!
October 18, 2021
We are honored to have been awarded a grant of $15,000 for 2022–23 by The Summerlee Foundation. Part of the foundation’s Texas History Program, this generous award will support our work transcribing and annotating letters for our first print and digital volume from the period of Texas annexation and the Mexican-American War. Thank you!
September 15, 2021
For the first time, we have three new interns this semester! Welcome to Brendan Lawlor, a junior here at American University; Abigail Peterson, a sophomore at St. Olaf College; and Leila Rocha Fisher, a junior at St. Olaf.
May 24, 2021
Welcome to Alaysia Bookal, master’s student in American’s School of Public Affairs and School of Education, our editorial assistant this summer!
May 3, 2021
Welcome to Amy Larrabee Cotz, our new associate editor! We’re excited to have her join our team after a decade editing the Dolley Madison Digital Edition.
February 19, 2021
We’re pleased to welcome Adele Raymer and Grace Tamms, St. Olaf College history majors, as this semester’s interns!
February 15, 2021
This Presidents’ Day, editor Michael David Cohen wrote an op-ed for the Baton Rouge Advocate: “Louisiana’s Only President Would Have No Tolerance for Capitol Riots.”
December 1, 2020
The National Historical Publications and Records Commission has awarded our project a major grant for 2021–22! See the NHPRC’s press release and its announcement with details on that grant and others to projects ensuring preservation of and access to the United States’ documentary record. (The NHPRC also publicized this grant in its December newsletter, as did David S. Ferriero, Archivist of the United States, in his December 10 blog post.)
October 30, 2020
Today’s episode of The Legal Edition features an interview with our editor, Michael David Cohen, about race and presidents (including, of course, Taylor and Fillmore) in nineteenth-century America.
October 15, 2020
The Summerlee Foundation, as part of its Texas History Program, has awarded a generous grant to the Correspondence of Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore for 2021–22. Thank you!
October 13, 2020
The Watson-Brown Foundation has awarded the Taylor-Fillmore project a major grant to support our work locating, transcribing, and publishing the two presidents’ letters in 2021–22!
October 9, 2020
August 20, 2020
Welcome to St. Olaf College senior history majors Alex Kiprof and Alyssa Moore, our project interns for the fall semester!
July 27, 2020
May 26, 2020
We’re excited to welcome Gabriella Siegfried, editorial assistant (and SPA master’s student), and Zoe Golden and Gretchen Ohlmacher, interns (and St. Olaf College undergraduates), to the Taylor-Fillmore project! See our staff page for more about these new members of our team.
March 20, 2020
The Taylor-Fillmore project’s Twitter feed, @ZTandMF, and this website, go live!
February 17, 2020
January 28, 2020
December 6, 2019
December 2, 2019
July 18, 2019
