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Tertiary sourceBook1879

The American Cyclopaedia entry on John Quincy Adams

1879

An 1879 encyclopedia entry summarizing the life of John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States. It is a reference article that largely repeats earlier encyclopedia accounts.

This encyclopedia entry is a later summary of Adams's life, useful for seeing how his career was presented to readers in the 1870s and 1880s.

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About this source

What it is

This is the entry on John Quincy Adams in The American Cyclopaedia, a reference work published in 1879. It gives his birth in Braintree on 11 July 1767 and his death in Washington on 23 February 1848. The opening quotes Adams's own account of how he received his name from his great-grandfather, John Quincy.

Why it matters

Encyclopedias like this one shaped how readers in the late 1800s understood famous people. The entry describes Adams traveling to Europe as a boy with his father, John Adams, who was serving as a diplomat. Because the article is a summary written long after Adams's lifetime, it shows how his life was presented to readers rather than adding new evidence about it.

Look closer

  • Which details come from Adams's own words, and which are the author's summary?
  • Why might an 1879 reference book describe a president's childhood in such detail?
  • What does this short entry leave out about the rest of Adams's career?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of John Quincy Adams on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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