Volume Links and Publication History

The following is an excerpt from the original Niles' Register site, which was created and maintained by Bill Earle until late 2018.

Hezekiah Niles founded The Weekly Register in 1811, and it continued in one form or another until 1849. During its run, it had four editors, three titles, and was published in three different cities, as follows:

• Editors: Hezekiah Niles, William Ogden Niles, Jeremiah Hughes, and George Beatty.
• Titles: The Weekly Register, Niles' Weekly Register, and Niles' National Register. (Oddly, the name by which it is almost invariably referred to now, Niles' Register, is one title that the work never actually bore.)
• Places of publication: Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia.

Over 38 years, Niles’ Register published 75 volumes, each covering a 6-month period. Most volumes were 416 pages, although some were longer; the total number of pages in the work exceeds 30,000. Three abbreviated issues of a proposed volume 76 of Niles' appeared in September, 1849. These were numbered 13, 14, and 15. (Apparently, numbers 1-12 were never published.) The contents of these three issues are not included in this cumulative index.

In the Cumulative Index, references are expressed in terms of volume and page number – e.g., “volume 2, page 173.” This is all that is needed to look something up in either the bound or microform copies of the Register, both of which are organized by volumes. It is not necessary to know dates of publication to look articles up in the pages of the Register. However, most entries in the Cumulative Index include dates of publication as well.

"Supplements," "appendices," and "addenda" were occasionally published in conjunction with the regular weekly issues of the Register. When these were numbered consecutively with the regular weekly issues, they are indexed without special annotation. The addition of supplement, appendix, or addendum to a volume/page reference – as in “volume 7, page 144 (supplement)” -- indicates that the reference is to a "supplement" or an "appendix" or an "addendum" that was not numbered consecutively with the regular weekly issues.

For those who are interested, the dates of publication of the various volumes of Niles' Register--as well as the occasions on which any supplementary publications appeared--are below.

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