Dukes of documentation

Letter from The Rev. Cotton Mather (1663-1728) to Massachusetts Judge William Stoughton (1631-1701), dated Sept. 2, 1692

— Photo by Lewismr

Massachusetts Historical Society headquarters, Boston. It houses a treasure trove of historical New England documents

— Photo by Biruitorul

“The men who founded and governed Massachusetts and Connecticut took themselves so seriously that they kept track of everything they did for the benefit of posterity and hoarded their papers so carefully that the whole history of the United States, recounted mainly by their descendants, has often appeared to be the history of New England writ large.”

— Edmund Morgan (1916-2013), Yale history professor