From the 1760s to the 1950s the United States of America expanded southward and westward, acquiring territories that spanned from Florida to California to Alaska. For over one hundred years the territorial governments and affairs in general were supervised by the Department of State. In 1873 that responsibility was transferred to the Department of the Interior and, with the exception of appointments of territorial officials, was ordinarily referred to the Patents and Miscellaneous Division. From this unlikely source comes the official history of the states’ formative territorial years recorded in primary source documents, many of which are hand-written, that include official correspondence with Washington, Native American negotiations and treaties, military records, judicial proceedings, population data, financial statistics, land records, and more.
Due to its large size, the Territorial Papers database is published in four parts:
