The Period Press

A publishing house for historical primary documents

Historical primary documents, free for everyone to read.

Its first imprint, Federalist Reader, offers all eighty-five Federalist Papers free to read, set as they first ran in the newspapers.

Read the Federalist Papersat federalistreader.org
Title page of The Federalist, second edition, volume one, printed in New-York by George F. Hopkins in 1802, with handwritten ownership inscriptions at the top.
The Federalist, second edition, vol. I. New-York: George F. Hopkins, 1802. Title page.

What we do

The Period Press publishes historical primary documents online, free for anyone to read. We set each document in an easy-to-read, historically accurate format and keep the words as they were.

The Constitution, 1787

The opening of the first printed Constitution: the words We the People of the United States set with a large initial W, followed by the Preamble in eighteenth-century type. Printed by Dunlap and Claypoole, Philadelphia, 1787.
The Constitution, first printing. Dunlap & Claypoole, Philadelphia, 1787. Library of Congress.

Federalist Reader

federalistreader.org

The papers as newspaper readers first saw them, with the answers that followed.

The papers.
Set in period gazette type, with a clean Reader mode and short plain-language notes.
The answers.
Anti-Federalist essays that replied to Publius, including Brutus No. 1 from Thomas Greenleaf’s New-York Journal.
By email.
One paper a week, or each paper on the anniversary of its 1787–88 publication.
Open Federalist Readerat federalistreader.org

The Federalist, 1788

Title page of The Federalist, first edition, volume one, printed in New-York by J. and A. M'Lean in 1788, with a Library of Congress stamp and handwritten inscriptions.
The Federalist, first edition, vol. I. New-York: J. and A. M'Lean, 1788. Title page.

Colophon

The corporation

The Period Press, Inc. is a Maryland nonstock nonprofit corporation, approved October 16, 2026.

An application for federal tax exemption is in preparation.

Directors
  • Vann Walke, President
  • Tom Hand, Secretary
  • Peter Bowe, Treasurer
Type

This site is set in Libre Caslon and IM Fell English.

Documents
  • The Federalist Second edition, 1802, title page
  • The Constitution First printing, Dunlap & Claypoole, 1787, Library of Congress
  • The Federalist First edition, 1788, title page
  • A Specimen By William Caslon, 1734

All are in the public domain.

Contact

periodpress.org · theperiodpress.org

info@theperiodpress.org

Caslon, 1734

The top of William Caslon's 1734 type specimen sheet: the heading A Specimen by William Caslon, Letter-Founder, in Chiswell-Street, London, above columns of roman, italic and other alphabets with sample text in graded sizes.
A Specimen by William Caslon, Letter-Founder, London, 1734.