Our Collection

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.

Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874 to Epes Sargent

Order a pdf of this item here.

A high-resolution version of this object is available for registered users. LOG IN

Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02095.12 Author/Creator: Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874 Place Written: Boston, Massachusetts Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 15 September 1863 Pagination: 2 p. : Height: 20.2 cm, Width: 12.8 cm Order a Copy

Sumner thanks Sargent for his sympathetic praise. Writes, "The verses on Shaw I had enjoyed before, & had sent to England," likely a reference to Sargent's poem, "Colonel Shaw: On Hearing that the Rebels Had Buried His Body Under a Pile of Twenty Five Negroes," Boston Evening Transcript, 4 August 1863.

Contains a 12 September 1878 autograph note signed by Sargent on page 2, giving a brief biography of Sumner: "Charles Sumner, United States Senator from Massachusetts... -a very conspicuous man in his day. He was a classmate of my brother, John O. Sargent, and we were intimate from my boyhood. Many years ago Sumner lectured at Auburn, Mass., and I delivered a poem the same evening. We put up at a house where they could give us but one bed: so we had to sleep together."

Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874
Sargent, Epes, 1813-1880
Sargent, John Osborne, 1811-1891
Shaw, Robert Gould, 1837-1863

Citation Guidelines for Online Resources