Van Buren, Martin (Collier's New Encyclopedia entry)

What it is

This is an encyclopedia entry titled "Van Buren, Martin," published in Collier's New Encyclopedia by P. F. Collier & Son in New York in 1921. It describes Van Buren as an American statesman and the 8th President of the United States, born in Kinderhook, New York, on December 5, 1782.

The entry traces his early legal training, his state and national offices, his service as Secretary of State, and his election as Vice-President and then President in 1835. It notes that his four years in office were marked by a financial panic.

Why it matters

Encyclopedias like this one shaped how readers in the early twentieth century understood past presidents. Because it is a summary written decades after Van Buren's lifetime, it reflects the judgments of its own time as much as his. The entry also mentions his declared opposition to any "slightest interference" with slavery, a point that helps students weigh how his career is presented.

Look closer

• Which events in Van Buren's career does the entry choose to emphasize, and which does it pass over quickly?
• How does the entry describe his position on slavery, and what might a reader need to know to judge that description?
• Why might an encyclopedia written in 1921 be a different kind of source from a letter Van Buren wrote himself?