GPO Makes Available New Statutes at Large Dating Back to 1789

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has added historical volumes of the United States Statutes at Large (Statutes at Large) to GovInfo, the one-stop site for authentic, published information for all three branches of the Federal Government. The newly added Volumes 1–64 (1789–1950) date back to 1789 and include the text of the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, amendments to the Constitution, treaties with Indians and foreign nations, presidential proclamations, and treaties and international agreements approved by the Senate. GPO added these Volumes to the previously existing collection covering the years 1951–2018. The entire Statutes at Large collection now covers 1789–2018 (1st–115th Congresses).

Statutes at Large: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/STATUTE

“Congratulations to our GPO teammates on providing the public easy access to these historic documents.  The American people are the real beneficiaries of having another collection on GovInfo that dates to our country’s humble beginnings,” said GPO Director Hugh Nathanial Halpern. “This digitization project is just another example of how GPO is delivering on its vision of an America Informed.”

The Statutes at Large is the permanent collection of all laws and resolutions enacted during each session of Congress. The Statutes at Large is prepared and published by the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The Volumes were added through collaborative digital imaging efforts between the Library of Congress and GPO.

Users may browse each volume on GovInfo by Bills Enacted into Laws, Private Laws, Presidential Proclamations, Public Laws, Treaties, and other levels of granularity. In addition to these digitally imaged files, GPO will also make available a version of each document in the United States Legislative Markup (USLM) XML schema in the future.