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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.

Bryant, William Cullen, 1794-1878 to James Thomas Fields

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01543.01 Author/Creator: Bryant, William Cullen, 1794-1878 Place Written: Roslyn, New York Type: Autograph letter signed Date: June 5, 1866 Pagination: 1 p. : Height: 19.9 cm, Width: 12.4 cm Order a Copy

Bryant writes to Fields, editor of the Atlantic Monthly. Transmits a poem, "The Death of Slavery" (GLC01543.02). Remarks that the poem was "meditated a year since but written out within the last few days. I had a good deal of trouble with some of the stanzas, or you would have had it earlier. You will publish it if at all, when you please." Relates that his wife is ill. In a postscript, notes, "What shall I call the poem. 'The Death of Slavery,' does not please me much but I can think of nothing else." Accompanied by three collateral prints of Bryant (two depicting an elder Bryant in profile with full beard, one portraying Bryant in his younger years). Collateral file also contains a partial printing of "The Death of Slavery," dated May 1866.

Bryant, William Cullen, 1794-1878
Fields, James Thomas, 1817-1881

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