Acknowledgments

Many organizations and individuals have made this digital volume possible. For financing the James K. Polk Project, I thank the Department of History, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Office of the Chancellor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC); the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)1; and the Tennessee Historical Commission (THC).

Several individuals deserve special recognition. History Department head and Polk Project director Ernest Freeberg, through effective leadership and advocacy, has enabled the project to continue in changing times. Bradley J. Nichols, now of Virginia Tech, contributed extensively to this volume as an editorial assistant. Holly Mercer, director of Newfound Press, and Mark Patrick Baggett and Mat Jordan, of Digital Initiatives at the University of Tennessee Libraries, enabled and shepherded its digital publication with enthusiasm, expertise, and originality. Jane Smith copyedited the front matter and notes, and Backstage Library Works encoded the manuscript.

Others at the project’s sponsoring institutions have supported it in myriad ways. At the NHPRC, I thank Lucy Barber, Darrell Meadows, and Annette Paul; at the NEH, Jason Boffetti, Caitlin Green, and Peter Scott; at the THC, Doyal Vaughan and Brenda Vaughan. At the University of Tennessee, I thank Kim Harrison, Bernie Koprince, Mary Beckley, and Margaret Cook Anderson, of the History Department; Scot K. Danforth, of the University of Tennessee Press; Daniel Feller, Thomas Coens, and Laura-Eve Moss, of the Papers of Andrew Jackson; Michael Dodson and Kyle Hovious, of the John C. Hodges Library; Tara Halstead, Greg Tolliver, and Stacey Wade, of the Office of Sponsored Programs; Teresa Dotson, of the Sponsored Projects Accounting Department; Drew Haswell, research coordinator in the College of Arts and Sciences; and Catherine Parks, formerly research coordinator.

A wide array of archivists, auctioneers, collectors, genealogists, and historians have provided assistance. None deserves more credit than Barbara Bair, of the Library of Congress, whose generosity with her time and knowledge have both rendered accessible and illuminated that institution’s Polk collections. I also thank the staff of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass., particularly Ashley Cataldo and Vincent L. Golden; Alex Rankin and Jane A. Silva, of the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University; Elizabeth Call, of the Brooklyn Historical Society, N.Y.; Jana Meyer and James J. Holmberg, of the Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Ky.; James Capobianco, of the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.; Sarah Horowitz and Kavita Shroff, of Haverford College Libraries, Haverford, Penn.; Anne Olson, of Heritage Auctions, Dallas; David K. Frasier and Isabel Planton, of the Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington; James Stimpert, of the Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; the staff of the Manuscript Reading Room at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; the staff of the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room at the Library of Congress, particularly Roslyn Pachoca; John Lissandrello, Midland Park, N.J.; Annmarie Valdes, of the School of Education at Loyola University Chicago; Jamie Kingman Rice, of the Brown Research Library, Maine Historical Society, Portland; the staff of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, particularly Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook and Elaine Heavey; Cheney J. Schopieray, of the William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Amanda J. Nelson, of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, History Department; the staff of the Gale Family Library of the Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, particularly Katie Jean Davey; Molly Kodner, of the Missouri History Museum Library and Research Center, St. Louis; Timothy Salls, of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston; Kit Fluker, of the Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room for Rare Books and Manuscripts, New York Public Library; Vann Evans and Josh Hager, of the State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh; Rebecca Williams, of the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Aaron L. Mason and Eric J. Schmaltz, of the Institute for Citizenship Studies, Northwestern Oklahoma State University, Alva; Matthew Lyons, formerly of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Christopher Philippo, Glenmont, N.Y.; John Holtzapple, of the James K. Polk Home and Museum, Columbia, Tenn., and Tom Price, formerly of that historic site; Steven Raab, of the Raab Collection, Ardmore, Penn.; Tricia Eaton and Elizabeth Higginbotham, of RR Auction, Amherst, N.H.; Laura Yntema, of Nate D. Sanders Auctions, Santa Monico, Calif.; Andrew M. Ansorge, of Swann Auction Galleries, New York City; George E. Webb, Jr., of Tennessee Books and Autographs, Rogersville; Tom Kanon and Susan Gordon, of the Tennessee State Library & Archives, Nashville; Sean Benjamin, of the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University, New Orleans, La.; L. Eileen Parris, of the Virginia Historical Society, Richmond; Alexandra C. Lane, of the White House Historical Association, Washington, D.C.; Susan A. Riggs, of the Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va.; Matthew Wynn, Atlanta; and Claryn Spies, of the Yale University Library, New Haven, Conn.