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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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1814/08/30

Madison, James, 1751-1836

Autograph letter signed

Title: to George Graham re: commercial treaty with Britain; instructions on Florida

Madison gives instructions for forwarding the report on unsettled question of ownership of Florida; and mentions the disposition of pending appointments and commissions. Two black and white bust engravings of Madison included.

GLC04816

1804/06/30

Few, William, 1748-1828

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Edward Telfair re: condemning the import of Black enslaved people into Georgia

Written as former delegate from Georgia to the current Governor, condemning the importation of Black enslaved people into Georgia as a ploy to increase the state's congressional representation. Portion of embossed tax stamp on bottom of paper. Few writes in part: "Is there one person of understanding & reflection among you who will not admit that every confederation of justice, humanity, and safety, forbids that any more Negroes should be brought into your state, and yet it is well known that the avarice of your citizens, and the rage for acquiring that property has broke through all…

GLC04842.05

1807/11/06

Morris, Gouverneur, 1752-1816

Autograph letter signed

Title: to David Parish re: Embargo Act: "Our President... seems to be out of his wits"

Morris writes of Jefferson: "Our President (to judge his Message) seems to be out of his wits. If I am not much mistaken, this session will, according to the vulgar phrase do him over."

GLC04842.11

1802/04/20

Bedford, Gunning, 1747-1812

Autograph document signed

Title: Pay order for $15 on Bank of United States

GLC04842.14

1806/12/28

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826

Autograph letter signed

Title: to James Dinsmore re: architecture and building projects at Monticello

The document is overall tanned. Jefferson discusses the style of doors for the North Pavilion at Monticello, mentions Poplar Forest's window frames, and suggests dismissing the worker Stewart. Dinsmore (d. 1830) was a housejoiner who worked and lived at Monticello from 1798 until 1809. He was the principal joiner for the remodeling at Monticello and was responsible for important interior finish work. He also worked for James Madison and John H. Cocke. See Jefferson Memorandum Book p. 985, note 63.

GLC04956

1804/05/11

Bishop, Abraham, fl. 1804

Pamphlet

Title: Oration in honor of the election of President Jefferson, and... Louisiana

Full title: "An Oration in honor of the election of President Jefferson, and the peaceable acquisition of Louisiana, delivered at the National Festival in Hartford...." Printed for the General Committee of Republicans.

GLC04959.02

1812/08/09

Winchester, James, 1725-1826

Letter signed

Title: to James H. Bryson

Discusses equipment and supplies with Bryson, assistant deputy quarter-master-general. The following January, General Winchester's men were massacred at Raisin River.

GLC04982

1807/03/26

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John Threlkeld re: arboriculture, tree planting and forwarding seeds

Discusses arboriculture and tree planting. Also forwards seeds. With a spray of leaves and three pecan nuts said to have been collected from the trees grown from the seeds originally enclosed.

GLC04888

1803/05/21

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Jared Mansfield re: recruiting replacement for incompetent surveyor

Recruiting a replacement for a surveyor who has "fixed an indelible blot on the map of the U.S."

GLC04917

1808/04/04

Madison, James, 1751-1836

Letter signed

Title: to William Pinkney

A long letter discussing foreign affairs with France and Britain and the Chesapeake affair. Makes reference to copies of many letters sent along with this one (not included). Asks Pinkney, the American minister to Britain, to continue his "interpositions in behalf of our impresses or detained seamen" and to continue working to abolish the practice of impressment. Also comments on policy toward British deserters and the protracted session of Congress, due to discussion of augmenting the army and relaxing the Embargo Act. Half of page three, all of page four, and part of page seven are in…

GLC04924

1807/09/01

Adams, John, 1735-1826

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Benjamin Rush

With separate (disconjugate) address leaf. Also discusses Jefferson Administration as "Monarchical, anti-Republican government;" the debates in 1776; the possibility of war, and his interest in the outcome of Aaron Burr's treason trial.

GLC04879

1801/04/21

Burr, Aaron, 1756-1836

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Thomas Jefferson re: politics, Hamilton's envy

Docketed by Thomas Jefferson ("Burr Aaron. N. York Apr.21.1801") at top of verso. Burr concludes his letter on politics that "Hamilton seems to be literally mad with spleen and envy and disappointment -- as far as I can yet judge, his efforts are perfectly impotent."

GLC04882

1811/11/14

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826

Autograph note signed

Title: to David Gelston re: thanks for supplying statistics on use of steamboats

Letter or note in the third person, thanking Gelston for supplying information on use of newly invented steamboats on the Hudson River. Written in Monticello

GLC04918

1807/10/30

Madison, James, 1751-1836

Autograph letter signed

Title: to William Jarvis

Secretary of State Madison discusses the "outrage on the frigate Chesapeake" and America's political response to it. Also comments on a good agricultural growing season and the shipment and order of various goods. Jarvis was the United States charge d'affaires and consul to Portugal.

GLC05101

1808/04/19

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826

Manuscript document signed

Title: [Presidential proclamation requiring potential insurgents against the Embargo Act at Lake Champlain to disperse peaceably]

Countersigned by James Madison. With white paper seal. In an effort to enforce the Embargo Act in New England, Jefferson warns all who do not disperse that officers will be ordered to "subdue such insurrections or combinations, to seize upon all those therein concerned...and to deliver them over to the civil authority of the place to be proceeded against according to law." Resistance to embargo on the Canadian border at Lake Champlain was so strong that the national government had to equip vessels and send troops there to maintain authority.

GLC07541

1801/12/10

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826

Autograph manuscript

Title: to Mr. Cheetham re: negotiations over 12th amendment

"No serious evil can result from the designs of the little faction which has existed for a short time previous to the presidential election [of 1800], & which is governed by no principle but is solely devoted to the aggrandisement of an individual." (Aaron Burr)

GLC07557

1814/08/27

Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845

Autograph letter signed

Title: to William Blount

"The enemy expect to overrun... Louisiana before a force can be collected to stop them...every exertion must be made to have by draft & voluntary servic[e] the whole in the field or rest assured all is lost and never will be regained but with oceans of blood."

GLC07547

1813/04

Broadside

Title: A Day of reckoning at hand [anti-War of 1812 election broadside]

New York State Anti-War of 1812 propaganda regarding election of officials against war.

GLC07551

1801/01/18

Marshall, John, fl. 1801

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Winthrop Sargent re: receiving documents & dividing up Mississippi territory

Date is 1801, and recipient is most likley Winthrop Sargent, who at the time was governor of the Mississippi Territory. Internal evidence and the handwriting on the endorsement point to Sargent, per Charles Hobson, Marshall Papers.

GLC07586

1803/07/29

Madison, James, 1751-1836

Letter signed

Title: to Robert R. Livingston re: Louisiana Purchase negotiations [in code]

Madison instructs Livingston and James Monroe to research precise boundaries of Florida during Louisiana Purchase negotiations. Portions of the letter are written in a numeric code.

GLC07466

1812/02/03

Barlow, Joel, 1754-1812

Header Record

Title: Collection of diplomatic dispatches to James Monroe as Sec. of State [Decimalized .01- .13]

Discusses international relations and Napoleon. Some dispatches manuscript, with some partly printed.

GLC07459.01

1812/03/15

Barlow, Joel, 1754-1812

Autograph letter signed

Title: to James Monroe re: organizing military forces

"It seems the Emperor never kept his ministers so hard at work night and day...to organize and push forward the unexampled military force before which Europe now trembles." Labeled "Dispatch no. 9"

GLC07459.02