On 27 June 1809, President James Madison appointed John Quincy Adams (JQA) minister plenipotentiary to Russia. On 5 August 1809, JQA set sail for St. Petersburg. In addition to writing long entries in one of his diary volumes, JQA also summarized each day of his trip in his line-a-day diary volume. Since 5 August 2009, the Massachusetts Historical Society has been posting John Quincy Adams's line-a-day diary entries on Twitter, exactly 200 years after his journey across the Atlantic.

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JQA Twitter Project http://twitter.com/JQAdams_MHS

Read John Quincy Adams's posts on Twitter. (Twitter posts appear under the user name, JQAdams_MHS.)

John Quincy Adams's Diaries

John Quincy Adams's Shipboard Reading Lists

John Quincy Adams in Russia

  • "The First Ambassador: John Quincy Adams in St. Petersburg, 1809-1815" (http://www.russianlife.com/pdf/adamsinrussia.pdf)
    This article written by Mary Claffey and Sara Sikes (both authors are Assistant Editors for the Adams Papers Editorial Project) appeared in Russian Life, September/October 2008. This article describes JQA's successful diplomatic mission in Russia as well as his life at Court with his wife, Louisa Catherine and young son, Charles Francis.

The Beehive Blog Posts about the JQA Twitter Project

  • Was JQA a Tweeter?
    This blog post describes JQA's numerous diaries and likens the short entries within his line-a-day diary to posts to the micro-blogging website, Twitter.
  • To Russia With Tweets
    This blog post from 16 July 2009 announces Massachusetts Historical Society's plans to post JQA's line-a-day diary entries on Twitter, beginning on 5 August 2009, 200 years after he started his journey to St. Petersburg, Russia.
  • John Quincy Adams, Media Darling
    This blog post includes links to online articles and video clips from the press describing the JQA Twitter project, as well as comments from Twitterers, and a quote from Louisa Catherine Adams (John Quincy Adams's wife) about the anguish she felt about the prospect of leaving two of her children in the United States when she accompanied her husband to Russia.

Selected Media Coverage about the JQAdams_MHS Twitter Project