Explanation of the Numbering System
The numbering system for all Chase documents is based on its date of
creation or publication. It was initially developed for the collection of Chase letters held at Kenyon College (probably by the Rev. Dr. George
Franklin Smythe--Kenyon professor and historian-- in the early part of the
twentieth century). This system was chosen when the project focused only on
those documents at Kenyon College. When the project expanded, the
continued use of the current system seemed more efficient (despite its
bulkiness) than devising a new system. The editors have
adapted this system to give a unique identification number to each document. They can be
translated as follows:
Letters and documents
The typical letter identification number reads L(YR)(MO)(DY). “YR” indicates the year written; “MO” indicates
the month written; “DY” indicates the day written. Thus:
L241223 would read December 23, 1824 and:
L990705 would read July 5, 1799
“XX” indicates that the year is unknown. “13” in the month field indicates that the
month is unknown. “32” in the day field indicates tha the day is unknown. Thus:
LXX0819 would read August 19, unknown year and:
L501304 would read the 4th of an unknown month in 1850 and:
L351132 would read an unknown day in November, 1835 and finally:
LXX1332 would indicate that no date is known.
In the event that two letters contain the same date, lower-case letters are added. Thus:
L200528 and L200528a are two different letters, both written on May 28, 1820
Journals
Journals are numbered in the same way that letters are, except that ”J” is used to indicate a journal
and the ending date of the journal is used. Unknown dates are indicated in the same manner. Thus:
J240512 would be the journal concluding with May 12, 1824.
Sermons
Sermon numbers are also identical to those of letters and journals except that “S” is used to indicate a
sermon and the date used is the date the sermon was first delivered. Unknown dates are similarly
indicated. Thus:
S180823 would be the sermon first delivered on August 23, 1818
Published Materials
Published materials are indicated by “P” and only by the year in which they were published. As with
the letters, multiple publications in any one year are then assigned a lower-case letter. If the year of
publication is unknown, “XX” is used as the year, and followed by a lower-case letter. As all the documents
were published between 1800 and 1900, "P18" will begin all published materials' numbers. Thus:
P1818c would be the third publication of 1818 and:
P18XXa would be the first date-not-known publication
Please note: publications are not lettered according to the actual order in which they were published in
any given year. Thus, P1824a was not necessarily published before P1824b.