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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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Place written

Year

Sub-era

1812/04/01

Austin, Moses, fl. 1802-1819

Manuscript document signed

Title: to Hezekiah Jackson writ of attachment issued by St. Louis Court of Common Pleas

GLC04223

1842/05/05

Dorr, Thomas Wilson, 1805-1854

Printed document signed

Title: [Commission of Daniel N. Paine as Lieutenant Colonel, 6th Regiment of 2nd brigade of the Rhode Island militia]

Partially printed document also signed by Dorr as governor and William H. Smith as secretary. Each use of "his Excellency" were struck and replaced by "Thomas W. Dorr" or "the Governor." The word "Company" was also struck to identify the armed force as a militia. Issued while Dorr was acting illegally as governor at the time of the Dorr rebellion.

GLC04227

1775/06/26

Broadside

Title: King's Troops... gained... Compleat Victory [British perspective of Bunker Hill]

Bunker Hill.

GLC04238

1829/12/30

Austin, Stephen F., 1793-1836

Document signed

Title: Printed land grant certificate with 6 lines writing by Austin, to Amos Edwards

Printed certificate no. 135 for land on Galveston Island. "Probably the earliest obtainable Texas imprint." Printed by G.B. Cotten. (Streeter 9).

GLC04246

1832/11/09

Burnet, David G., fl. 1830-1870

Document signed

Title: Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company printed power of attorney (12-10-1830)

Followed by a later power of attorney sending John Mason to lobby Mexico to change its colonization law. Also signed by Anthony Dey, William H. Sumner, George Curtis and others. From the Papers of Anthony Dey.

GLC04250

1830/04/06

Document

Title: Decree approved April 6, 1830, repealing colonization law of March 24, 1825

Printed document, provides for colonization contracts by Mexican empresarios in an attempt to staunch the flood of Anglo-American immigration to Texas. Also abolishes slavery and places Mexican troops in Texas. References: "Handbook" 2: 154; Eberstadt 162: 161; Streeter 759.

GLC04252

1832/05/02

Document

Title: Coahuila y Tejas (Mexican State). Repeal of Colonization Law (in Spanish)

Mexican Congress repeal of the colonization law of March 24, 1825, and provides for colonization contracts by Mexican empresarios. Printed in Spanish with manuscript notes (in Spanish). References: Texas Handbook 2: 154; Eberstadt 162; Streeter 778. Three copies located.

GLC04253

1837/06/07

Houston, Sam, 1793-1863

Document signed

Title: Commission of George Morgan, First Lt. of artillery in army of republic of Texas

Printed on vellum.

GLC04256

1794/11/26

Randolph, Edmund, 1753-1813

Letter signed

Title: to Jose De Jaudenes re: desire to prevent delays in adjusting controversies

Signed as Sec. of State, to the Spanish Commissioner. Also announces the appointment of Thomas Pinkney as Envoy to Spain.

GLC04260

1811/11/23

Evans, Oliver, 1755-1819

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Samuel Pitkin

Hopes Congress will pass new laws that will help him to extend his steam engine patent. Argues that by protecting patents the government will be aiding the public good, and encouraging innovation.

GLC04265

1811/08/28

Fulton, Robert, 1765-1815

Document signed

Title: [Renunciation of claim by N. Roosevelt against Robert R. Livingston & John Stevens]

Roosevelt renounces his shipping-related claim against Livingston and Stevens. Signed by Nicholas Roosevelt and by Robert Fulton, as a witness. Document lacks original seal at right hand side. Nicholas J. Roosevelt (1767-1854) had gone into joint venture with Robert Livingston and John Stevens in 1797 to build a steamboat. Roosevelt proposed a vertical wheel design for that vessel. In the spring of 1802, Livingston commuicated Roosevelt's plan to Fulton; the next year, Livingtson and Fulton launched a steamboat propelled by Roosevelt's vertical wheel design. The "New Orleans," piloted by…

GLC04266

1811/11/08

Fox, Robert W., 1754-1818

Letter signed

Title: to James Monroe

Fox, the American consul at Falmouth, writes to Secretary of State Monroe on foreign affairs as they pertained to maritime commerce in the year preceding the War of 1812, particular British enforcement of the orders in council. Offers condolence on the death of General Lyman. Discusses attempts to protect American ships and his hope that the differences between the United States and Britain will be resolved.

GLC04267.01

1817/05/31

Fox, Robert W., 1754-1818

Letter signed

Title: to John Quincy Adams

Fox, the American consul at Falmouth, writes to Secretary of State Adams in an attempt to collect monies owed for expenses he had incurred assisting impressed seamen since 1809.

GLC04267.02

[1778/10]

Rhode Island. Acts

Broadside

Title: An Act assessing and apportioning a rate of tax...[R.I. tax for Gloucester]

Apparently an only known copy. Note on verso indicates that the copy is for the treasurer of Gloucester. References: Alden 751.

GLC04290

1780/11/29

Massachusetts

Broadside

Title: Resolution of Massachusetts Legislature re: militia officers, quota for army, &c

Printed document (or broadside?) subscribed in type by John Hancock. Establishes a quota for each town to supply the Continental Army. Printed by Edes & Sons.

GLC04292

1779/06/17

Broadside

Title: Copy of the proceedings of... Boston, June 17, 1779 [price controls]

Resolution in support of price regulation and the necessity of local committees of correspondence to enforce the regulations. Also resolving that those who refused to accept Continental currency be considered enemies. Printed by Benjamin Edes & Co.

GLC04293

1808/01/21

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826

Autograph letter signed

Title: to J. Dorsey re: progress in manufactures, system of weights & measures, decimal

GLC04491

1861/12/13

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Autograph endorsement signed

Title: [Recommendation of his boyhood friend George May for judge].

Lincoln writes "I knew George May as a boy, and young man, then a little inclined to dissipation -- If free from that now, he has intellect enough for almost any place..." Basler, Roy P. The Collected Works Of Abraham Lincoln. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), Vol. V 1861 - 1862, p. 68

GLC04500

1812/06/17

Adams, John, 1735-1826

Autograph letter signed

Title: To: Samuel B. Malcom.

Politics, party & family feuds.

GLC04524

1826/06/24

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826

Broadside

Title: Jefferson's last letter to Mayor of Washington [small broadside on silk]

A printing of Jefferson's famous letter to the mayor of Washington, D.C., declining an invitation to a Fourth of July celebration. Jefferson hopes the Declaration to be a "signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessing of self government." Jefferson died on July 4. Only 3 other copies. Printed on silk.

GLC04525

1807/12/22

Gallatin, Albert, 1761-1849

Printed letter signed

Title: [Announcement of the passage of the Embargo Act to port collectors]

Circular letter addressed to the Collector of the port of Penobscot. The act forbade all exports between the United States and foreign countries, and precipitated the War of 1812. Gallatin was then secretary of the treasury. Signed in type, "Approved : TH: JEFFERSON".

GLC04539