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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Year

Sub-era

1860/10/30

Scott, Winfield, 1786-1866

Autograph letter signed

Title: to [John B. Floyd]

Comments on an untitled essay he wrote which dealt with the topics of succession and the tensions between the Northern and Southern states. In part: "Gen. Scott is all solicitude for the safety of the Union. He is, however, not without hope that all dangers & difficulties will pass away without leaving a scar or a painful recollection behind..."

GLC07876.01

1860/10/29

Scott, Winfield, 1786-1866

Manuscript document signed

Title: Views suggested by the imminent danger of a disruption of the Union by...

GLC07876.02

1787/09/28

United States. Congress.

Broadside

Title: Resolution of Congress forwarding Constitution to the states for ratification

GLC07877

1788

Hamilton, Alexander, 1757-1804

Book signed

Title: An Essay on the Learning of Devises...

GLC07880

11 July 1804

Church, Angelica, 1756-1814

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Philip Schuyler

Writes from Greenwich Village, New York about the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. "I have the painful task to inform you that General Hamilton was this morning wouned [sic] by that Wretch Burr but we have every reason to hope that he will recover."

GLC07882

1777-1778

Austin, Jonathan Loring, 1748-1826

Autograph manuscript

Title: Journal kept while serving in France as secret intermediary for Franklin

GLC07883

1862/04/04

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

Document signed

Title: Authority to affix the seal...to treat...on...suppression of African slave trade

GLC07751

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

6 February 1843

Lee, Robert E., 1807-1870

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John MacKay

Comments on MacKay's improving health and gives additional advice. Discusses congressional appropriations, reductions in budgets and appointments, and politics in Washington, D.C. at length. Mentions that the Oregon Bill, which expansionist President James K. Polk supported in his campaign, passed the Senate but had a doubtful fate in the House. Lee was then the Superintending Engineer for Fort Hamilton in New York Harbor. Delays and changes in congressional appropriations threatened his improvement projects. MacKay was Lee's closest friend during his days at West Point. He served in the…

GLC07755

1869/12/15

Wilson, Henry, 1812-1875

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Editor of theTribune re: Cuban independence

GLC07759

1845/09/27

Polk, James K. (James Knox), 1795-1849

Document signed

Title: Authority to affix the seal attesting to Alabama Act

GLC07761

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

1837/12/30

Van Buren, Martin, 1782-1862

Manuscript document signed

Title: Pardon of Mary Scott, convicted of stealing

GLC07766

1865/04/27

Blanc, Louis, fl. 1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Charles F. Adams re: Lincoln assassination

GLC07749.03

1865/05/06

Tupper, Martin F., fl. 1865

Autograph letter signed

Title: to William Cullen Bryant re: forwarding copy of his poem "Lincoln's Martyrdom"

GLC07749.04

[1866]/12/14

Lincoln, Mary Todd, 1818-1882

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Mrs. James White

Dreams as omens, her husband

GLC07750

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