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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.

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 [Recommendation of his boyhood friend George May for judge].

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC04500 Author/Creator: Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 Place Written: Washington, District of Columbia Type: Autograph endorsement signed Date: 1861/12/13 Pagination: 2 p. : docket ; Order a Copy

Lincoln writes "I knew George May as a boy, and young man, then a little inclined to dissipation -- If free from that now, he has intellect enough for almost any place..."

Basler, Roy P. The Collected Works Of Abraham Lincoln. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), Vol. V 1861 - 1862, p. 68

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

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