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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.

[South Carolina's 1860 Act of Secession]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC09237 Author/Creator: Place Written: s.l. Type: Broadside Date: 1865 Pagination: 1 p. : Order a Copy

Lithographic facsimile of South Carolina's 1860 Act of Secession. On March 3, 1865, a detachment of the 102 U.S. Colored Troops captured what they believed to be the original manuscript of South Carolina's Secession ordinance. (In fact, they had discovered a rare Confederate lithographic facsimile by Evans and Cogswell.) 1st Lt. George A. Southworth, upon returning to Michigan, arranged for the document to be reproduced, adding a printed inscription on the bottom, "This Scroll of 'Treason' was found in the house of Dr. Lamb, Secretary of State…," listing the companies and leaders who participated in the capture.

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