Sources

Effective October 29, 2026 · Market Mojo LLC

Every record in Civic Atlas names its source and, for an original, where the original is held. The 168 original documents behind the records come from the archives and libraries below. Each is listed in its own order (repository, record group or collection, series and file), with the credit line it asks for and the terms on which its records are used. Members can open each document and every record drawn from it in the app's Sources tab.

National Archives and Records Administration

National archives of the United States · 12 documents

Where: National Archives Building, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.
Finding aids: National Archives Catalog (catalog.archives.gov); Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States
Credit line: National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
Use and rights: Records of the federal government are in the public domain and may be quoted and copied without permission. The National Archives asks that every use name the record group, series and file unit, as set out in its General Information Leaflet 17, Citing Records in the National Archives of the United States.

Record Group 42: Records of the Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks of the National Capital, 1790–1951

Subgroup 42.2.2: Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 1791–1802

Proceedings, with index, and letters sent, 1791–1802 (Entry 21)
Five bound volumes, cited by volume and manuscript page; volume 4 of 5 is in box 3 (1798–1802), stack 12W2A, row 1, compartment 6. There is no microfilm of these volumes. Microfilm Publication M371 belongs to subgroup 42.2.1, so the original volumes are cited.
Folder labelled Series 38, served with Entry 21, box 2
Estimate for the Treasury Office, City of Washington, about 1798–1800.
Letters received by the Commissioners
Cited by letter number.
Ledger of the public sales of lots
Cited by square and lot.
Payrolls of the workmen at the public buildings
Cited by trade, building and month.

Record Group 45: Naval Records Collection of the Office of Naval Records and Library

Subject File, U.S. Navy, 1775–1910 (Entry 520)
File PA, box 496.
Miscellaneous Records of the Navy Department, 1789–1889 (Microfilm Publication T829; National Archives Identifier 1853196)
Register of agreements, 1801.

Library of Congress

National library of the United States · 52 documents

Where: 101 Independence Avenue SE, Washington, D.C.
Finding aids: Library of Congress Online Catalog (catalog.loc.gov); Chronicling America (chroniclingamerica.loc.gov)
Credit line: Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; for newspapers: Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress.
Use and rights: The Library of Congress does not own rights in most of what it holds and leaves the judgment of rights to the user. The manuscript and the newspapers used here date from before 1927 and are in the public domain in the United States. Chronicling America is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program, a partnership of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.

Manuscript Division

Ethan Allen, “Washington Parish, Washington City, D.C., 1794”, manuscript history (after 1857)
Cited by manuscript leaf.

Serial and Government Publications Division: newspapers

National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser (Washington), in Chronicling America
Cited by issue and page.
Evening Star and Sunday Star (Washington), in Chronicling America
Cited by issue and page.
Washington Critic (Washington), in Chronicling America
Cited by issue.
Times, and Patowmack Packet (George-Town), Library of Congress catalog sn86053061
Cited by issue.
Centinel of Liberty (George-Town)
Cited by issue.
Columbian Mirror and Alexandria Gazette (Alexandria)
Cited by issue.
Gazette of the United States (Philadelphia)
Cited by issue.

Prints and Photographs Division

Historic American Buildings Survey (National Park Service), deposited at the Library of Congress
Cited by survey number. Used for reference only; the books do not reprint the images.

Stephen J. Ponzillo Jr. Memorial Library and Museum

Private library of the Grand Lodge of A.F. & A.M. of Maryland · 76 documents

Where: Grand Lodge of A.F. & A.M. of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland
Finding aids: By appointment with the library of the Grand Lodge of Maryland
Credit line: Courtesy of the Stephen J. Ponzillo Jr. Memorial Library and Museum, Grand Lodge of A.F. & A.M. of Maryland
Use and rights: A private library. Its records are quoted and summarized here for research, with credit. Photographs or copies of the originals, and any publication of them, need the library's written permission.

Membership Rolls, Collection of Lodge Returns, 1793–1811

Lodge No. 9 (George-Town)
Returns of members, by year.
Columbia Lodge No. 19
Returns of members, by year.
Columbia Lodge No. 35
Returns of members, by year.
Naval Lodge No. 41
Returns, lists of members, extracts of minutes, credentials and dues accounts sent to the Grand Lodge.
Potomac Lodge No. 43
Returns of members, by year, and an extract sent with a return.

Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Maryland

Communications of the Grand Lodge, 1790–1810, read in Edward T. Schultz, History of Freemasonry in Maryland (Baltimore, 1884–1888)
Cited by communication (month and year). Read in Schultz's printed text; the manuscript proceedings are the Grand Lodge's own.

Christ Church, Washington Parish

Private parish archive · 1 documents

Where: 620 G Street SE, Washington, D.C.
Finding aids: By permission of the parish
Credit line: Christ Church, Washington Parish, archives; with thanks to Sandy Hussey, for Christ Church Washington Parish archives
Use and rights: A private archive, used by permission of the parish. Ask the parish before reproducing any of its records.

Parish archives

Parish records, 1795–1810
Vestry and parish records.

Navy Department Library, Naval History and Heritage Command

Federal library of the Department of the Navy · 1 documents

Where: Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.
Finding aids: Navy Department Library catalog
Credit line: Navy Department Library, Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, D.C.
Use and rights: A federal library. Records of the Navy Department are in the public domain; cite the accession number.

Manuscripts

Letter book, Accession 29800
Cited by accession number.

Recorder of Deeds, District of Columbia

Public land records office · 3 documents

Where: Washington, D.C.
Finding aids: Recorder of Deeds, by liber and folio
Credit line: Recorder of Deeds, District of Columbia, land records
Use and rights: Public land records, open to all; cite liber and folio.

Land records of the District of Columbia

Deed books (libers)
Cited by liber and folio, with the new folio where the volume was refoliated.

Other libraries holding newspapers

University and society libraries · 7 documents

Finding aids: Each library's catalog
Credit line: Harvard University Library; Charleston Library Society
Use and rights: Quoted from the issue for research, with credit. Copies follow each library's own terms.

Newspapers

Impartial Observer and Washington Advertiser (Washington), Harvard University Library
Cited by issue.
City Gazette (Charleston), Charleston Library Society
Cited by issue.

Printed and edited sources

Published editions, histories and government printing · 9 documents

Finding aids: Research libraries; Founders Online (founders.archives.gov)
Credit line: The edition, volume and page named in each record
Use and rights: Quoted briefly from the edition named, with its citation. Government printing and works published before 1927 are in the public domain; editorial matter in modern editions (such as The Papers of Thomas Jefferson) remains the copyright of its publisher.

Editions and histories

Founders Online, National Archives (with the University of Virginia Press)
Cited by edition, volume and document.
The Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, microfiche edition, ed. Thomas E. Jeffrey (Clifton, N.J.: James T. White, 1976)
Cited by fiche and frame.
Henry B. Hibben, Navy-Yard, Washington: History from Organization, 1799, to Present Date (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1890)
Cited by page.
United States Statutes at Large
Cited by volume and page.
Glenn Brown, History of the United States Capitol (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1900–1903)
Cited by volume and page.
Records of the Columbia Historical Society
Cited by volume and page.

Documents still to be placed

These citations name a newspaper or source without its holder. They are listed so nothing is hidden; each is being traced to the library that holds it. (7 citations.)

Background reading for the Potomac Territory

Amos B. Casselman, “The Virginia Portion of the District of Columbia,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C. 12 (1909): 115–141.
The choice of the federal district on both banks of the Potomac, Alexandria County's place in it from 1801, and its return to Virginia in 1846. Held by: Historical Society of Washington, D.C.; JSTOR, stable URL jstor.org/stable/40066996. Published 1909; public domain in the United States. The digitized copy is used under JSTOR's terms.
Donald M. Robey, “Alexandria Lodge No. 39, Alexandria, Virginia, 1783–1788,” paper read at a stated meeting of Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22, September 23, 1999.
The lodge's Pennsylvania warrant as No. 39 (February 3, 1783), its move to the Grand Lodge of Virginia as No. 22 (April 28, 1788, with George Washington as Master), and its members, drawing on Franklin L. Brockett, The Lodge of Washington. Held by: Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22, A.F. & A.M., Alexandria, Virginia. An unpublished paper; summarized with credit, not quoted at length. Ask the lodge before reproducing it.

Method

Primary records first. Originals outrank later histories; where they disagree, the original is followed and the difference is noted.
Counted by document. Statistics count original documents, not repeated mentions.
Names from the lodge rolls. The rolls are the authority for spelling; other spellings are kept as variants.
Marked by kind. Every record says whether it is an original, a line compiled in a book, or a note from the author's research workbook, which is never counted as primary.
Private records excluded. The minute books and ledger of Federal Lodge No. 15 and the Royal Arch minutes, which belong to the lodge, are not included. The Commissioners' records program is published separately.

The book series

Thomas M. Saharsky, Origins of the Royal Arch; Potomac Lodge; Federal Lodge No. 15, 1793–1811; Naval Lodge No. 41; Columbia Lodge No. 35; Washington Parish; and Proto Lodges of the Potomac Area, 1787–1811 (Market Mojo LLC, through Lulu, 2026). With thanks to John Payne and Linda Mellgren; the U.S. Senate Historical Office; Jordan Zappala; and Sandy Hussey, for Christ Church Washington Parish archives.