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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.

Knox, Henry, 1750-1806 to William Smith, Isaiah Thomas, William Hull

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.04909 Author/Creator: Knox, Henry, 1750-1806 Place Written: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Type: Manuscript letter signed Date: 7 April 1791 Pagination: 2 p. : docket ; Height: 32 cm, Width: 19.9 cm Order a Copy

Knox sends to Smith by the bearer "Mr. John Hills" a letter asking Smith if he could help Knox find a surveyor who could help him "ascertain [the] practicability" of building a canal that would "open an inland navigation from Connecticut River to Boston." Hills is also sent to survey that possibility as well. Knox acknowledges that the idea might be "entirely utopian" but it is worth exploring more, for it would offer "immense public advantages." Marked as a copy in the docket.

Knox, Henry, 1750-1806
Smith, William, fl. 1791
Thomas, Isaiah, 1749-1831
Hull, William, 1753-1825

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