Documentary editions locate, edit, annotate, and publish important historical documents and other “primary” sources produced by authors, politicians, government agencies, institutions, and regular people.  The goal of documentary editing is to make the vital raw material of scholarship—primary sources written by the people at the time and place—available, understandable, and usable for as many researchers as possible.

The Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition is part of a long tradition of documentary editions that have made the written record of the past accessible to Americans.  It is also a documentary edition of and for the twenty-first century, defining its scope and mission in response to important new historical perspectives and employing new technologies to deliver a more useful edition to more researchers, teachers, and students than ever before possible.

Through the compelling and illuminating historical sources it delivers, the new ways of thinking about the past it will encourage in users of all ages and experience levels, and the technology it harnesses, CWGK is truly becoming a documentary edition for the 21st century. And it will do so openly and free of charge to anyone with internet access.