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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August 7, 1888

Howe, Julia Ward, 1819-1910

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Clarence Stedman

Sends a picture. Promises a copy of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Written at Oak Glen, Howe's summer home.

GLC00496.033.01

circa 1861-1910

Howe, Julia Ward, 1819-1910

Autograph manuscript signed

Title: [Battle Hymn of the Republic]

Transcript of all five stanzas.

GLC00496.033.02

circa 1880's

Howe, Julia Ward, 1819-1910

Title: Engraved portrait of Julia Ward Howe

Letter mentions a portrait; signature appears printed

GLC00496.033.03

1886

Stedman, Edmund Clarence, 1833-1908

Letter

Title: Lithographic letter requesting autograph

Hopes to insert into his private copy of "Poets of America" original drafts or autographic copies of poems by the authors represented in the book. He is also collecting engravings of the authors, and asks his correspondent to send a photograph if such an engraving does not exist. Unsigned, but name penciled in at bottom.

GLC00496.033.04

May 17, 1845

Jackson, Sarah Yorke, 1805-1887

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Emma Y. Donelson

Addressed "My dear sister." Includes updates on mutual friends and family. Andrew Jackson adopted his wife's nephew and named him Andrew Jackson, Jr. Sarah Yorke, his wife, was the president's daughter-in-law. Emma Yorke Farquhar Donelson married Jackson's nephew, Thomas Jefferson Donelson, Andrew Jackson, Jr.'s twin brother.

GLC00496.034

April 30, 1845

Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Emma Y. Donelson

Written primarily by Sarah Yorke Jackson. Discusses family, mutual friends, and the president's declining health in detail. Andrew Jackson adds postscript notes regarding his health and the inheritance Emma should receive for caring for her aging mother. Sarah Yorke Jackson married the president's adopted son, his wife's nephew, Andrew Jackson, Jr. Emma Y. Donelson married Andrew Jackson Jr.'s twin brother, Thomas Jefferson Donelson, who was not adopted by the president.

GLC00496.036

September 18, 1808

Randolph, John, 1773-1833

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Frances Bland Coalter

Written by Randolph as a Virginia Congressman to his sister. Writes after learning she has been ill and hopes to visit the warm springs at which she is recuperating. Says he would have been home sooner but an unexpected demand for money left him without the means to pay for his passage home until after the court session was over. Tells her "This fact is for yourself alone; for altho' I am not ashamed of my poverty, I do not choose that it should be unnecessarily disclosed." Although he wanted nothing more than to visit her, he claims that the expedition "like everyone other which [my desire…

GLC00496.212

April 15, 1831

Lee, Sarah, 1791-1856

Autograph letter signed

Title: to unknown

Delivers an account of her travels. Mentions her respect for Thomas Pringle.

GLC00496.187

January 23, 1848

Lover, Samuel, 1797-1868

Autograph letter signed

Title: to J.M. Dawson

Describes the reception of his poem in New York City and Philadelphia. Discusses Broadway and the New York theatre scene. Affixed to verso is a satirical letter from Dawson dated February 25, 1854 presenting Lover with a diamond ring.

GLC00496.189

July 24, 1834

Mitford, Mary Russell, 1787-1855

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Thomas Pringle

Reports travel difficulties from an exciting trip to London. Notes, "if I had staid a week longer I should have been brought back in my coffin." Has been able to write since her return. Mounted (possibly glued) to a single piece of thick, gray paper.

GLC00496.198

August 31, 1828

Opie, Amelia Alderson, 1769-1853

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Thomas Pringle

She thanks Pringle for sending anti-slavery documents and positively critiques his poetry.

GLC00496.203

January 26, 1860

Polk, Sarah Childress, 1803-1891

Autograph letter signed

Title: to N.L.C. White

Declines request for autograph of her husband, James K. Polk.

GLC00496.206

26 August 1870

Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom, 1819-1901

Document signed

Title: [Appointment of John Guyse Sparke as Ensign in the infantry]

Signed in upper left-hand corner. Co-signed by Secretary of State for War Edward Cardwell and [illegible] of the War Office. Includes royal seals.

GLC00496.209

July 16, 1841

S., Edward, fl. 1841

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Caroline Voigt

Writes to his fiancé about his job as an accountant in a shipyard. Discusses seeing her father in Philadelphia and inquires about family and friends. He proposes they marry and expresses his love for her. Author's last name not provided.

GLC00496.216

22 March 1810

Moncrieffe, John, fl. 1807-1810

Document signed

Title: [Bill of sale for two enslaved people]

One bill of sale dated March 22, 1810 signed by William Payne and John Moncrieffe. The document details that two enslaved people named, Peggy and Hager were sold for $438.51 to Johnathan Lucas. Moncrieffe, the attorney for George P. Cosseral and his wife, arranged the sale for the Cosserals who were in England. Printed by G. M. Bounetheau. State seal of South Carolina printed at the top of the document. Fragile.

GLC00496.226

April 29, 1839

Stockenstrom, Andries, Sir, 1792-1864

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Mrs. Pringle

Discusses travel plans to the continent and assures her that she will have enough time to get her packets together before his return.

GLC00496.231

September 20, 1817

Webb, Mary, fl. 1817

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Miss Ratledge

Webb, on the Island of Saint Helena while Napoleon was there, writes to her friend in London. Mentions a recent earthquake on the island. Refers to mutual acquaintances. Discusses ordering goods from the India Company. Comments that her daughter is her only female comfort, that she made a mistake in bringing only female servants, and complains of the lack of British goods on the island. Writes "the gaiety of this place is sickening to say nothing of the dissipation- We often often talk of the many pleasant hours you have suffered us to pass in your presence and the recollection affords me…

GLC00496.250

June 13, 1898

Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom, 1819-1901

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Ronald

Queen Victoria thanks Ronald for a cup he sent for her Jubilee. She hopes to see him when she returns to Windsor. Written on black-bordered Osborne royal stationery.

GLC00496.259

March 1, 1863

Wilkes, Jane J., fl. 1863

Letter

Title: to Charles Wilkes

Incomplete letter from which author has been inferred (says "Mrs. Wilkes" in the body). Mrs. Wilkes discusses her meetings with President Lincoln, Secretary of Navy Gideon Welles, Secretary of State William Seward, Senator Isaac Arnold, and General John Sedgwick in trying to get her husband's rank of commodore reinstated (it had been annulled according to this letter). Wilkes was disrated (becoming a captain on the retired list) in November 1862, on the ground that he had been too old to receive the rank of commodore under the act then governing promotions. Recipient inferred from the lines "…

GLC00496.265

August 21, 1766

Wesley, John, 1703-1791

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Miss Avison

John Wesley encourages her in her faith and gives her practical advice on how to increase it. With a side note: "Do not measure the length of your letter by that of mine, I have a thousand avocations."

GLC00496.111

circa 1837-1889

Bridgman, Laura Dewey, 1829-1889

Autograph quotation signed

Title: [Autograph of January for Mrs. Allen]

Complete quotation reads, "Laura Bridgman Providence autograph for Mrs. Allen." Bridgman was a deaf, mute, and blind girl, educated by Samuel Howe at the Boston Institution for the Blind, Watertown, Massachusetts, beginning in 1837. Collateral are three newspaper clippings about Bridgman (one with a portrait), a printed poem about her by Mrs. Sigourney, and a autograph note by Anna Maria Bergandthat.

GLC00496.114.01