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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.

Gilbert, Thomas, 1723-1788 [Instructions to Moses Hitchcock on arranging a Brookfield, Massachusetts town meeting]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01450.447.02 Author/Creator: Gilbert, Thomas, 1723-1788 Place Written: Brookfield, Massachusetts Type: Manuscript document signed Date: 16 September 1776 Pagination: 1 p. : address Height: 34.5 cm, Width: 23 cm Order a Copy

Signed by the eight Select Men of Brookfield (two names illegible). Orders Hitchcock, as constable of Brookfield, to inform all the town's freeholders and those qualified to vote to meet on 30 September 1776. Provides instructions on the agenda, which will include Revolutionary War financing, the town budget, preparations for the small pox epidemic, taxation, and arms manufacturing. A note signed Hitchcock on the verso indicates his compliance.

Gilbert, Thomas, 1723-1788
Phips, John, 1723-1804
Hitchcock, Moses, 1743-1799
Gilbert, Daniel, 1729-1824
Rice, Benjamin, 1723-1796
Abbott, Jonathan, fl. 1776
Convers, James, 1725-1811

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