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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.

Gardoqui e Hijos (Firm) to Arthur Lee

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01450.523 Author/Creator: Gardoqui e Hijos (Firm) Place Written: Bilbao, Spain Type: Autograph letter signed Date: April 4, 1778 Pagination: 2 p. : address : docket ; Height: 33 cm, Width: 40.1 cm Order a Copy

Discusses accounts for military supplies, mostly uniforms and blankets for "the American friends that we have worked for in the present troublesome times." Also notes hearing news that Benjamin Franklin "had been presented to His Majesty as an Embassador [to France] of the Unitted Collonys in America." With a brief, tallied clothing account on the bottom of page two. Signed "J.G. & Co." The commercial house of Gardoqui e Hijos (Joseph Gardoqui and Sons) of Bilbao, Spain, represented the American colonies in the Spanish court during the American Revolution. Lee had served in Spain as American commissioner in 1777 and 1778.

Gardoqui e Hijos (Firm)
Lee, Arthur, 1740-1792
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790

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