In February, we reached a major milestone: the American Revolution Institute’s new digital archive and library collections platform is now live.
This launch matters because the Institute’s headquarters is home to one of the world’s greatest collections of books and manuscripts on the history of the Revolutionary War, as well as a research library on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century military and naval history. The new platform brings together digitized materials from across our archival and library holdings and makes them accessible in a modern, research-ready environment for researchers, educators, students, and lifelong learners.
We invite readers to explore the American Revolution Institute Digital Collections Catalog, The Field, here:
https://collections.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/
We chose the name The Field deliberately. It is more than a catalog: it is a collections platform built to advance the Institute’s educational and research mission and, over time, to mature into a robust digital archive offering resources unavailable elsewhere. Our goal is for The Field to become a trusted, citable destination for authoritative work on the American Revolution.
In short, the new collections platform is a field of inquiry, a space where users can engage directly with primary sources, including rare books, maps, manuscripts, prints, and other materials that shaped the Revolutionary era. This work supports the Institute’s core mission by encouraging advanced study and publication on the American Revolution. We pursue that mission by building and stewarding a leading special collections library, supporting scholars and expanding digital access to rare printed and manuscript materials.
The new catalog is powered by TIND, which provides a durable foundation for discovery, long-term preservation, and sustainable scholarly use. This is the first phase of a larger, ongoing project. Right now, the catalog reflects the Institute’s digitized collections. We are actively migrating the full library catalog, including more than forty thousand records, into The Field. That larger library collection will come online over the course of 2026 as the migration continues. We are especially pleased that the launch of the new catalog will coincide with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Built-in Optical Character Recognition (OCR) allows for full-text search of manuscript material.
The Field will also create new opportunities for how we share and study the Revolution. Visitors can already explore digitized manuscripts, rare prints and visual materials from the Institute’s holdings. As the platform develops, it will support new forms of digital publication, including online exhibitions, short essays and video content. It will also open the door to new kinds of digital scholarship, including improved discovery tools and, increasingly, responsible approaches to transcription and enhanced access that will incorporate emerging technologies, including AI.
We invite readers to explore the digitized collections now and to follow along as the full library catalog comes online over the course of 2026.
About the Library
The research library of the American Revolution Institute houses more than fifty thousand rare books, manuscripts, prints, broadsides, maps and modern reference sources, and is one of the most important resources in the world for advanced study on the Revolution. The library welcomes researchers to use the collections by appointment and supports scholarship by offering several research fellowships each year to graduate students and advanced scholars. To learn more, and make an appointment click here.