• Carruth, Gorton. The Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates. New York: Harper Collins, 1993.
    • Christman, Margaret C. S. 1846: Portrait of the Nation. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996.
    • Foner, Eric. The Reader's Companion to American History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991.
    • Hafertepe, Kenneth. America's Castle: The Evolution of the Smithsonian Building and Its Institution, 1840-1878. Washington, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1984.
    • True, Webster P. The First Hundred Years of the Smithsonian Institution, 1846-1946. Washington: n.p., 1946.
    • portraits in this project thanks to the National Portrait Gallery