The Ulysses S. Grant Association

General Ulysses S. Grant (1864)

Victories in the Civil War made Ulysses S. Grant a national figure and propelled him into the White House. Until recently, however, historians and biographers have found him to be an elusive and controversial subject. For decades basic documents necessary to understand this complex figure--Grant's correspondence, military and government papers, and other important materials--remained scattered in libraries, archives, and private collections. Now, the Ulysses S. Grant Association is assembling these documents in an edition that presents authentic texts to the general public as well as to specialists.

In 1962, the Civil War Centennial Commissions of Illinois, New York, and Ohio established the Ulysses S. Grant Association and appointed John Y. Simon as editor. The Grant project began at the Ohio Historical Society, then moved to Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 1964. Over more than four decades, the Grant Association has collected copies of more than 200,000 Grant documents, making possible evaluations of his life and career based on documentary evidence.

With support from Southern Illinois University, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the Grant Association has published twenty-six volumes of The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant that cover Grant's career through 1875. Work continues on chronological coverage of Grant documents, incorporating letters received by Grant with his own writings. Grant's presidential papers illuminate issues of politics, Reconstruction, frontier and military history, race relations, foreign policy, economic development, and nineteenth-century culture. Post-presidential papers open perspectives on Grant's 1877-79 world tour and triumphant return, a failed 1880 presidential bid, subsequent diplomatic and business ventures, and his final financial and personal challenges.

The Grant Association also plans the first scholarly edition of the Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant. The Memoirs will be prepared with previously unused original manuscripts.

A reliable documentary record of Grant's writings and those of his contemporaries provides a better understanding of both the man and his times. Members of the Ulysses S. Grant Association sustain an important historical enterprise.

You can promote all these significant projects by joining the Ulysses S. Grant Association. See our page on membership information for more details.

FRANK J. WILLIAMS
President

Membership Information	Directors & Editorial Board
Historical Information on U.S. Grant	Books
Photographs and other items	Bibliography

2008 Annual Meeting Information