Skip to Main Content
Bowdoin College Library Ask Us!

Congressional Documents: Cong.Journals

About

Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States

Journal of the Senate of the United States

"Motions, reports filed, executive communications, votes, and other basic legislative actions of the House and Senate are summarized in the Journals. The Journals do not include the actual floor debates, speeches, or extended remarks." (Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)

Senate Executive Journal

Journal of the Senate in executive session.

House and Senate Journals

Chamber Congress Years Format Location
House, Senate 1-43 1789-1875 online House Journal, Senate Journal, from American Memory.
House, Senate 1-14 1789-1817 online House and Senate Journals, Series I, via Readex
House, Senate 15-97, 1st sess. 1817-1981 online Journals appear in the Serial Set during the period 1817-1981. There are two options to access the same database.
(1) Search CBBcat on the number of the Congress (e.g., sixty-fourth) and either Journal of the House of Representatives or Journal of the Senate; or
(2) Access directly in U.S. Congressional Serial Set under Publication Category > Congressional Journals. This article provides a list of House and Senate Journals that are in the Serial Set in 1817-1952 along with volume numbers: Walter Stubbs, 1997. "Finding congressional journals in the U.S. Serial Set." Journal of Government Information no. 24 (1):39-45. .
House, Senate 60- 1907- print Govt Doc XJH (House)
Govt Doc XJS (Senate)
House 102, 2nd sess.- 1992- online search or browse in govinfo
House, Senate 108, 2nd sess.-113, 1st sess. 2004-2013 online ProQuest Congressional, Committee Prints & Misc. Publications
House, Senate varies varies online HathiTrust, Internet Archive, Google Books

 

The Journals for the 1st-16th congresses (1789-1820) are indexed in 2 volumes titled General Index of the Journals of Congress [...], Serial 1939 (1st-10th congresses) and Serial 2071 (11th-16th congresses), available through the two Serial Set options above.

Senate Executive Journal

Congress Years Format Location
1-96 1789-1980 online Senate Executive Journals
1-43 1789-1875 online Senate Executive Journal, from American Memory.
57-110 1901-2008 print Journal of the executive proceedings of the Senate
Govt Doc Y 1.3/4:

 

Bowdoin College Library
3000 College Station
Brunswick, ME 04011
207-725-3280
Ask Us!
Report a Problem