Search | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

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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.

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1892

Photograph

Title: The Last day at the Battle of Gettysburg

B. W. Kilburn, Littleton, N. H. [Photograph of the Cyclorama at Gettysburg.]

GLC05137.036

1890's ca.

Photograph

Title: Cemetery Hill with stone wall charged by the Louisiana Tigers [Gettysburg]

Inscribed on verso. "Charged by the Louisiana Tigers." Group of visitors to the battlefield with three men wearing medals. "Sold for the benefit of the Soldier's Memorial Church to be erected on this battlefield, in which any soldier may have a stone 12x24 inches, inscribed with 40 letters, for $10, and 20 cents extra for each letter."

GLC05137.037

1896

Photograph

Title: Tomb of Gen. Grant, Riverside Drive, N.Y

Alfred S. Campbell, Elizabeth, NJ, publisher. Small grave site of Grant before the building of his mausoleum.

GLC05137.159

1887/10/01

Benjamin, Marcus, fl. 1887

Autograph letter signed

Title: to [Johnston Livingston] re: necessity to hurry up the "Livingston matter"

The letter was printed on stationary of "Office Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography."

GLC03107.04172

1887/10/06

Benjamin, Marcus, fl. 1887

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Johnston Livingston re: Livingston genealogy

GLC03107.04173

1889/01/16

Thompson, Charles H., fl. 1889

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Johnston Livingston re: elaboration on documents

Thompson lists some documents that he alluded to when speaking with Johnston.

GLC03107.04174

1889/01/22

Oakley, Adile, fl. 1889

Autograph letter signed

Title: to [Johnston] Livingston re: a letter mentioning his father's name

Adile states that he has enclosed a letter that announces [Johnston's] father's name, as he believes he would appreciate possessing such an item.

GLC03107.04175

1897/02/11

Livingston, Johnston, 1817-1911

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Mrs. Harriman re: thank you for a floral arrangment

Johnston sends his thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Harriman for their gift of a floral arrangement sent for Johnston's 80th birthday.

GLC03107.04176

1889/03/02

Livingston, E.B., fl. 1889

Autograph letter signed

Title: to [Johnston] Livingston re: Livingston family history

E.B. Livingston writes about the process of trying to learn of the Livingston family's history, and mentions his reading of the first Robert Livingston's journals.

GLC03107.04177

February 24, 1882

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Miss Lena

Thanks Lena, a young girl, for a potholder (GLC07731.02). Apparently Lena had read Douglass's narrative, and he thanks her for reading and thinking kindly of his life and history. Writes "Please accept my best thanks for 'Any holder but a slaveholder.'" Accompanied by a blank sheet of paper of the same size, possibly formerly attached to the note.

GLC07731.01

1892

Kurz & Allison

Title: The Fort Pillow Massacre.

Depicts the April 1864 battle at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, in which witnesses reported that Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest violated the conduct of war by killing unarmed and surrendered soldiers. Underneath the print, text indicates that Union forces were led by Majors William F. Bradford and Lionel F. Booth (who was killed during the battle). Portrays Confederate soldiers killing African American soldiers, women, and children. In the center of the print, Forrest hoists the Confederate flag. For an extensive eyewitness account of the battle, please refer to GLC05080.01.

GLC07727

1878

Newell, J. Perry, fl. 1858-1866

Title: The Battle of Lake Erie, Commodore O.H. Perry's Victory.

Printed by J.H. Bufford's Sons in Boston, Massachusetts. Lithograph depicting the 10 September 1813 Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. The names of the ships depicted appear along the bottom.

GLC07728

circa 1882

Object

Title: ["Any holder but a Slave holder" potholder]

Based on the accompanying letter (GLC 7731.01), created by Miss Lena, who gave the potholder to Frederick Douglass as a gift after reading his narrative. Depicts two African Americans (one male and one female) holding hands and dancing against a caramel colored background. Text is stitched above and below the dancing figures. Appears to be a form of needlepoint stitching.

GLC07731.02

1896/01/31

Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915

Typed document

Title: Address of Booker T. Washington, principal of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama, before the Hamilton Club, Chicago

With autograph corrections. Washington's address establishes that he believes in the African American to be the glue that holds and can hold the North and the South together. He believes that African Americans in both the North and South struggle to better themselves as individuals and as a people, and that this can help improve both regions.

GLC07934

1898/02/17

McKinley, William, 1843-1901

Title: Telegram to Wilhelm II.

Accepting condolences for loss of Americans aboard U.S.S. Maine.

GLC07952

1882/08/20

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Sarah Pillsbury re: death of his wife Anna Douglass

Douglass writes "Thanks for your kind letter. Mrs Douglass was all you say of her and more. She was the post in the centre of my house. Different we were in many things. She was conservative and I radical, she was for the old I for the new, She did not care to learn to read - and was thus measurably that out from the things the interested me. but in all the duties of mother and wife, she deserves all you have said of her. Two people could not well live together forty and four years as we have done, without the death of either being a shock and a calamity."

GLC07752.01

13 July 1889

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Mr. Clapp

One letter from Frederick Douglass to Mr. Clapp Dated July 13, 1889. The letter is regarding Douglass's work in Haiti. "The work before me in hayti is not very inviting. Neither the Diplomatic nor the Sanitary conditions are what I should like; but as Daniel Webster once said any man can do all agreeable duty not every man can do a disagreeable duty."

GLC07764

3 March 1895

Wallace, Lewis, 1827-1905

Autograph letter signed

Title: to A. E. Allen

Apologizes for the delay of the photograph. States that assassination trial was "perfect in every respect." Provides the name of the officers that tried the Lincoln conspirators. The list of names accompanies a photograph that has been pasted on a piece of board along with the letter (GLC07740.02). The letter is also accompanied by three newspaper clippings entitled: "Was Mary Surrat guilty?", "He might have hanged", and "Gen. Holt dead." A short biography on Lewis Wallace is pasted adjacent to the photograph. The extent given is that of the board on which various pieces are pasted on.

GLC07740.01

1880 ca.?

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895

Photograph

Title: Half length seated carte de visite portrait of Frederick Douglass, with cane

GLC07752.02

1880 ca.

Powelson, fl. 1880

Photograph

Title: [Carte de visite of Anna Douglass]

Three quarter length seated carte de visite portrait of Anna Douglass. Douglass appears to be holding a parasol.

GLC07752.03

1880s ca.

Anthony, Susan B., 1820-1906

Autograph note signed

Title: The United States citizen's vote that Mr. Justice Hunt declared $100 damage...

"You have reason to exult, that you are a 'freeborn American' and I wish you may never be ashamed to boast of it. In all cases remember, that birth, without wisdom, is reproach and disgrace."

GLC07753.01