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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.

[Penobscot Expedition: Approval of request to retrieve Americans in enemy territory]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01450.159 Author/Creator: Place Written: Townsend Type: Manuscript document Date: 12 September 1779 Pagination: 1 p. : docket Height: 24.3 cm, Width: 19.7 cm Order a Copy

Written by an unknown commander during the Revolutionary War giving permission to Thomas Nutting and Charles Hutchings to raise a party to "fetch off the families of the friends of America" at "Majabagaduce" (now Castine, Maine). They are given permission to raise a party of men not already in the service and to take prisoners; they are not to commit any "inhuman action" along the way. Townsend is now Boothbay Harbor. Verso of document has a waxy backing, which appears to have been added to provide stability to the paper.

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