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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Douglass, Frederick (1818-1895) to Thomas B. Pugh

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01954 Author/Creator: Douglass, Frederick (1818-1895) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 17 November 1870 Pagination: 2 p. ; 24.9 x 19.6 cm. Order a Copy

Douglass refuses to speak at the Philadelphia Academy of Music because of its discriminatory policies towards African Americans. The letter escalates into a barrage of criticism against the Academy and Philadelphia the "City of Brotherly Love", which according to Douglass "stands almost alone in the intensity of its wolfish hate and snobbish pride of race."

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895
Pugh, T.B., fl. 1870

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