May 22, 2026
In just a few weeks, America will be celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. This is a good time to consider delving into the history of ancestors who may have played a role in that historic time.
There are many good resources to help you pursue this research. Many of them can be found online on websites such as Ancestry, My Heritage and Family Search. However, there are some resources which are not as readily available. One such resource is the Draper Manuscript Collection.
The Draper Manuscript Collection is a huge 491-volume archive containing mostly handwritten documentation of the early American frontier between about 1740 and the War of 1812. Geographically, the records cover the trans-Allegheny west. There are records from many Eastern states. Some of the states covered are Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Ohio.
The collection is primarily transcriptions of interviews, documents and correspondence. Military records are a focus, particularly the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Lyman Copeland Draper amassed the collection over decades in the mid-18th century.
Unfortunately, the Draper Manuscripts are not digitized. They are available on microfilm. The collection is not comprehensively indexed, but there are printed indexes for some sections. The Guide to Draper Manuscripts by Josephine L. Draper is probably the most complete index. It is available at many libraries and can be ordered into local Colorado libraries through the Prospector system.
Check WorldCat (https://search.worldcat.org/ ) for locations of nearby libraries who have copies of the entire collection. Larger, regional libraries may have these microfilms. University libraries may also have them. For example, I found microfilms of the Joseph Brant Papers (part of the Draper Manuscript Collection) at the Coe Library at the University of Wyoming. The Family Search Library in Salt Lake City also has a complete set.
The Draper Manuscript Collection is large and complex. Before diving into the collection, it’s a good idea to spend some time gaining an overview of it. Family Search Research Wiki is a good starting point. The article at https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Draper_Manuscript_Collection is worth reading.
Another way to gain familiarity with the collection is to view one of the many videos about the manuscripts available on YouTube or other platforms. The SAR (Sons of the American Revolution) has a good video called “Using the Draper Manuscript Collection.”
Because of its complexity, the Draper Manuscript Collection is underutilized. If you have ancestors who were involved in the American Revolution, the War of 1812 or the settlement of the trans-Allegheny west, the collection is worth accessing. It may contain information found nowhere else.
Carol Stetser
Researcher
Larimer County Genealogical Society