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.

Knox, Henry, 1750-1806 to George Washington

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.10288 Author/Creator: Knox, Henry, 1750-1806 Place Written: s.l. Type: Manuscript document Date: 14 December 1793 Pagination: 3 p. : Height: 40 cm, Width: 24.5 cm Order a Copy

Writes concerning a "return of the Ordnance Arms and Military stores in possession of the United States." States that many of these stores accumulated in several areas as a result of the revolution and wishes to find better permanent housing for them. Writes, "[t]he important characteristics for magazines and arsenals seem to be perfect security against enemies, internal and external, blended with an easy access by water. The expence of land transportation of heavy articles for a series of years compared with that by water, renders the latter quality indispensible for a magazine." Goes on describe how each of the current locations does not meet this standard and suggests other methods of housing the stores and discusses the importance for a national repository. Watermarked "J Watt & C Patent Copying/Sold By J Woodmason/London." Letterpress copy.

Knox, Henry, 1750-1806
Washington, George, 1732-1799

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