In Search of Washington Directory

[Jim Boylston]

Does anyone know of online access to either the Congressional Directory from 1827-35, or an online or downloadable copy of S.A. Elliot's Washington Directories covering the same dates?
Thanks,
Jim

[TRK]

Jim-- I believe the Congressional Directory didn't start publication until 1888. Do you mean Poore's Political Register and Congressional Directory? It's a list of federal officials, including congressmen, from 1776 to 1878. It provides mini-biographies and a recap of their political services:
books.google.com/books?id=Nn0FAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA72&dq=%22congressional+directory%22+1828&as_brr=1#PPP9,M1

As for city directories, Google Books has quite a few historic directories for various US cities online. The best way to search for them is to do a specific, directed title search, enclosing key phrases from the title in quotation marks (city directory titles often were rambling); otherwise, you might get 300 hits. Ultimately, though, you might have to try accessing the directories on microfilm.

[Jim Boylston]

Thanks, Tom.
S.A. Elliot apparently published a series of "Wahington Directories" annually that listed names, occupations, and residences of prominent Washingtonians.
I've seen individual copies and reprints of year 1827 for sale, and have seen references to the directory up until year 1835. Since the work should be in the public domain, I had hopes that someone might have scanned the various editions for online access.
Jim

[TRK]

The Elliot 1827 Washington Directory was reprinted seven years ago and is available used through Amazon cheap; there's even one offered on Ebay right now for seven bucks.

I've come up dry as to any Washington city directories this early online. Rootsweb has a bunch of them, but they're post-Civil War. There's a microfilmed collection of early US city directories that most major research libraries have; your best bet might be to see if those Elliot's D.C. directories are in that collection, and request them via interlibrary loan.

[Jim Boylston]

I just purchased a used copy of "United States Congressional Directories", by James Young, used from Amazon. From the despription, it appears that young used the old Elliot directories as source material, so I'm hoping I find what I need. This supposedly includes directories from the 18th century through the 1840's.
At least it was only $10.
Jim