The Manuel Quezon microfilm was a joint project of the University of Michigan and the National Library of the Philippines. The resulting 54 reels of microfilm represent the most important, but not all, of the Quezon papers. The papers span the period beginning with Quezon's residence in Washington DC as Resident Commissioner and ending with his death in New York State during World War II. There is no material relating to his public service in Mindoro or Tayabas Province, approximately 1903-1909, or to his education.
The collection is of greatest importance for the wide range of Quezon's correspondence and for the documentation of the events and politics involved in the long history of the Philippine independence movement. Quezon corresponded widely both with political figures in the United States as well as with the other great leaders within the Philippines.
Due to the sensitivity of the positions he held, especially before independence, Quezon had cause to devise codes which he used in his correspondence. Staff members of the National Library have prepared a glossary of these words and numerical codes with their meaning. These code indices cover different chronological periods: Code I: 1911-1912; Code II: 1911 and January-July 1914; Code III: 1914-1915 (also known as the War Department code); Code IV: 1917-1929; Code V: 1930s. This code index has been place with the first set of microfilm boxes; a second set has been attached to the printed finding aid.
The collection has been arranged into three series: General Correspondence; Speeches, Articles, Statements, Reports, Interviews, and Book File; and Correspondents File.
Many of the documents had suffered physical damage or decay prior to microfilming. Some are fragments of the original and portions of others may be illegible due to staining, water damage or climate induced decay.
Manuel Luis Quezon (August 19, 1878-August 1, 1944) was born in Baler, Tayabas (now Quezon Province), Philippines. He was the eldest son of Lucio Quezon and Maria Dolores Molina; married Aurora Aragon, December 14, 1918; children, Maria Aurora, Maria Zeneida, and Manuel, Jr. Quezon was educated at the San Juan de Letrán College (B.A., summa cum laude, 1894) and University of Santo Tomás (Ll. B., 1903).
Provincial fiscal of Mindoro, 1903-1906; Municipal Concilor of Tayabas, Tayabas, 1906 (Resigned to run as governor of Tayabas Province, 1906); Co-founder of the Partido Independista Inmediata 1906-1907; Governor of Tayabas Province, 1906; First assemblyman from Tayabas to the First Philippine Assembly, 1907; Resident Commissioner of the Philippines to the United States, 1909-1917 (re-elected 1911, 1913, 1915); President of the Senate, 1916-1935; First President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, 1935-1941; of the Commonwealth government-in-exile (Washington, D.C., U.S.A.), 1941-1944.
