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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.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882 to Mr. Laighton

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01549 Author/Creator: Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882 Place Written: Concord, Massachusetts Type: Autograph letter signed Date: August 20, 1861 Pagination: 4 p. : Height: 20.3 cm, Width: 25.1 cm Order a Copy

Regrets that he is unable to attend a meeting held at Allston Hall the following Friday, in remembrance of Theodore Parker. Emerson claims, "I do not know that I could add any facts of interest to the recollections of the occasion. Yet Theodore Parkers mind was so lavishly given to the public welfare, that I can easily see how all the new startling events in our politics may associate themselves with his memory. In dark days & amidst sinking men we miss his strength the more, and yet we cannot doubt his relief & joy in the present pronounced state of the Republic, over the so-called 'integrity of the Republic,' six months ago."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882
Parker, Theodore, fl. 1861

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