This website presents images of the 51 volumes of John Quincy Adams's diary in the Adams Family Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Adams began keeping his diary, more than 14,000 pages, in 1779 at the age of twelve and continued until shortly before his death in 1848.

The diary can be searched by date or by using the detailed timeline. Because there is no transcription of the diary, it is not possible to search the text by keyword. For an overview to this website including an introduction to locating and reading the handwritten pages, please refer to the Getting Started page.

A matching grant from the Save America's Treasures program funded this project.


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