The Strange Case of the Papers of Martin Van Buren

Let’s be honest. Martin Van Buren is mostly known for being mostly unknown. Here are the things I know about Martin Van Buren: His name was Martin Van Buren, and he was president of the United States. One of those facts is technically wrong, as his name originally was Maarten van Buren. Van Buren, the eighth president, was the first president born in the United States (as opposed to the pre-U.S. colonies). Funnily enough, he was our only president whose first language wasn’t English.

Van Buren in life was mostly an East Coast kind of guy, but in death, he’s become a Tennessean. Well, not Van Buren, exactly, but Cumberland University, over in Lebanon, which has become the home of the Papers of Martin Van Buren. The project is really cool. The people involved are digitizing all of Van Buren’s papers to make them available for free on the internet. They’ve got a large collection of Van Buren’s papers on microfilm, which contains all the items held by the Library of Congress, but they’ve also got items from people’s personal collections.

You can see why this would be a boon for history buffs — it’s a huge trove of primary sources that will be available for free. And you can see why this will be a boon for Van Buren’s legacy, since it should increase his name recognition, if only because his papers will come up when people are researching Andrew Jackson’s legacy.

But I think this is also a really good thing for Tennessee. We already pride ourselves on being the fertile ground from which the Democratic Party sprang, and Van Buren was crucial for solidifying the party and making sure it functioned. (Come back to us, Martin Van Buren!) Bringing this project into Tennessee in many ways makes the state a one-stop shop for all your Early History of the Democratic Party needs and an important stop for your Jacksonian America needs.

Read more: http://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pith-in-the-wind/article/20857147/the-strange-case-of-the-papers-of-martin-van-buren