Using Congressional Primary Sources

Primary sources are a powerful tool for understanding history, but congressional materials can be challenging to interpret. This guide is intended to provide a jumping-off point to National History Day participants who are looking to bolster their work with primary sources but might not know where to start.

Understanding the Terminology

The Glossary of Terms Related to Congressional Records can be a helpful guide for those unfamiliar with the language used in the national legislature. Congress.gov also offers an extensive list of Legislative Terms.

How Congress Counts Time

When conducting research on the House and Senate, it is important to know which Congress might be relevant to your work. Meetings of Congress are numbered in two-year sessions, with the 1st Congress taking place from 1789 to 1791. This chart of session dates provides an easy way to match Congresses with years.

Legislation and Debates

Congress.gov is an extensive database that contains various congressional materials, including bills, reports, and text of debates (the Congressional Record). The materials on Congress.gov cover a range of years but are not searchable for all dates. Additional records can be found under the “Browse” function and are sorted by congressional session and year. This can be especially useful for locating debates of Congress for earlier sessions published in the Annals of Congress, the Register of Debates, or the Congressional Globe.

Additionally, the Government Publishing Office (GPO) hosts downloadable PDFs of bound copies of the Congressional Record on its website, providing full records of debates for each session of Congress.

Research Collections

Members and their offices often produce a large volume of records during their congressional service. Their personal papers can contain a wide variety of items, including anything from campaign files to scrapbooks. If the location of a Member’s personal papers is known, it is listed on the “Research Collections” tab in their entry on the House Historian’s website as well as the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. These manuscript collections are stored at research institutions around the county; some have been digitized but others can only be viewed in person.

Secondary Sources and Beyond

Congressional history is lengthy and complex, with many specific areas of focus. Whether the research is related to House history, committees, or House speakers, there are lots of options to choose from in these bibliographies!