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.

King, Rufus, 1755-1827 to Timothy Pickering

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC04798 Author/Creator: King, Rufus, 1755-1827 Place Written: London, England Type: Letter signed Date: 9 November 1797 Pagination: 2 p. : Height: 25.4 cm, Width: 20.3 cm Order a Copy

Written by King as American Ambassador to Britain to Secretary of State Pickering. Written in numeric cipher, probably concerning the implications of XYZ Affair. Letter was unable to be uncoded at this time. Cipher could possibly be in the Rufus King Papers at New-York Historical Society.

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