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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.

Washington, Martha, 1731-1801 to Fanny Bassett Washington

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01055 Author/Creator: Washington, Martha, 1731-1801 Place Written: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Type: Autograph letter signed Date: September 29, 1794 Pagination: 4 p. : docket ; 25 x 20 cm. Order a Copy

Discusses Fanny's children's health and schooling, and a possible suitor named Tobias Lear, who was Washington's secretary. In regard to the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania, she notes that "The insurgents in the back country has carr[i]ed matter[s] so high that the President has been obliged to send a larg[e] body of men to settle the matter."

Washington, Martha, 1731-1802
Lear, Frances Bassett Washington, 1767-1796
Lear, Tobias, 1762-1816

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