Our Collection

At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 70,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World to soldiers’ letters from World War II and Vietnam. Explore primary sources, visit exhibitions in person or online, or bring your class on a field trip.

Reform Movement

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23 August 1851

Clay, Cassius Marcellus (1810-1903)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to unknown

Written from "White Hall," Clay's estate. Clay, an emancipationist, replies to a letter from an unspecified recipient. Possibly discussing his run for Governor as an anti-slavery candidate in 1851, writes, "The number of votes cast for the anti-slavery candidates is small- I believe my vote is about thirty five hundred...

GLC02448.05

17 September 1851

Smith, Gerrit (1797-1874)

Printed document

Title: Speech of Gerrit Smith, made in the National Liberty Party Convention at Buffalo, September 17th, 1851, when the following Resolutions were under discussion...

(title continues)... 1. Resolved, That righteous civil government is an indispensable agency for blessing and saving the world; and that every political party which does not identify itself, openly and heartily, with such government, is unworthy of confidence and support. 2. Resolved, That righteous civil government is impartial towards all its subjects, and redress all the wrongs within its reach; and that, hence, it disowns the policy of removing one evil and neglecting another...

GLC04717.33

28 September 1851

Sumner, Charles (1811-1874)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Thomas L. Sprague

Thanks Sprague, a schoolboy, for his compliments: "Through my mother, who recently visited your friends in Hingham, I have learned your kind interest in me, & the manner in which you have spoken of me in one of your exercises at school. The words of a soul, so young & ingenious as yours, are precious to me. I receive them as an encouragement for myself & as an [illegible] of your own consecration to a great cause."

GLC02095.04

1 November 1851

Greeley, Horace (1811-1872)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Elizabeth Oakes Smith

Greeley tries to discourage Smith from founding a woman's newspaper as a poor business decision and discusses differences between business and reform. He concludes by preferring that they be "former acquaintances" rather than "friends" or "enemies." With a docket on p.1 by recipient: "full of conceited assumptions by no means warranted by my communication to him. E.O.S."

GLC00496.026

1851/11/22

Smith, Gerrit

Letter

Title: to President King, Columbia College; discusses Fugitive Slave Law

Printed circulat letter, addressed in Smith's hand.

GLC06852

21 December 1857

Smith, Gerrit (1797-1874)

Printed letter

Title: From the New York Tibune. Mr. Gerrit Smith on the President's message. The currency and the hard times.

Smith writes, "There is nothing in the nature of civil government, and there is nothing in the Constitution, to justify the Federal Government in banking, or in undertaking to authorize it in others." Also criticizes economists' reference to slavery as an institution, or "an essential part of the basis of public and national credit."

GLC04717.70

1851-1854

Book signed

Title: [The Proceedings of the woman's rights conventions].

Compilation of the 1850 through 1854 women's rights conventions. Contents include the 1850 convention held at Worcester; the 1851 convention held at Worcester; the 1852 convention held in Syracuse; the 1853 convention held at the Broadway Tabernacle in New York; and the 1854 convention held in Cleveland. Inscription reads, "Harriet H. Robinson from Paulina Gerry, Nov. 1881." Gerry attended the 1850 convention. Robinson used this volume in writing "Massachusetts in the woman suffrage movement.

GLC06228

circa 1852

Sumner, Charles (1811-1874)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to T. P. Chandler

Writes about speaking in the Senate: "Had I made that speech, I would have taken a vacation of a week or more. Now I wait the Civil Appropriation Bill, when I shall move an Amendment, that nothing be paid [to] the execution of the Fug. Sl. Bill, but that the same be repealed. On this I shall speak [in] a night." Marked Senate Chamber. Addressed to [T.] P. Chandler. Circa date inferred from content.

GLC02095.03

1852

Stowe, Harriet Beecher (1811-1896)

Book

Title: Uncle Tom's cabin; or, life among the lowly.

First edition, first printing (with Hobart & Robbins on the copyright pages). Rebound, with original cloth binding bound into back. Boston, John P. Jewett & company; Cleveland, Ohio, Jewett, Proctor & Worthington. Two volume set housed together in a book box.

GLC01361

1852

Thompson, George

Book

Title: Thompson in Africa: Or, an Account of the Missionary Labors, Sufferings, Travels, and Observations of George Thompson in Western Africa, at the Mendi Mission.

Thompson in Africa: Or, an Account of the Missionary Labors, Sufferings, Travels, and Observations of George Thompson in Western Africa, at the Mendi Mission. Abolitionist's diary of his African trip. Includes several eye witness accounts of the slave trade, an engraving of the decks of a slave ship, and a foldout map. "In this condition, naked, they are stowed in close to one another. Frequently they are also shackled and handcuffed together, two and two (right leg of one to the left leg of the next and also the arms) to prevent their rising on the captors."

GLC09408

12 January 1852

Sumner, Charles (1811-1874)

Autograph quotation signed

Title: [Good Works!...]

A sentiment by Charles Sumner: "Good works! Such even now is the Heavenly ladder on which angels are ascending & descending while weary Humanity on pillows of stone slumbers heavily at its feet."

GLC05508.240

13 March 1852

Channing, William Ellery (1817-1901)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to George Roberts

Was much affected by his editorial today on barbarism. Questions the veracity of the piece and suggests that if Roberts can provide evidence to his readers, this would create such indignation that it would "put an end to these atrocities." In a p.s. he warns him: "you will make no reference to this communication in your paper." Recipient is possibly the George Roberts who edited the Boston Times from 1852 to 1855.

GLC02509.04

20 March 1852

Stowe, Harriet Beecher (1811-1896)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

On its first day of publication in 1852, Stowe sends a copy [not present] of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria. Slavery had been abolished throughout the British Empire in 1833, and Stowe holds Britain up as a model for Americans. Written mostly in the third person.

GLC01585

25 May 1852

Smith, Gerrit (1797-1874)

Printed letter

Title: to Frederick Douglass

Smith offers his opinions on Lajos Kossuth, the Hungarian revolutionary hero. Writes, "I have not seen Kossuth:- but I have read his Speeches. The impression they have made upon me is, that he is not only transcendently eloquent- especially when his country, his deeply wronged country, is his theme- but that he is a man of extraordinary judgment, discernment, skill, tact: and that he is, moreover, eminently unselfish..." Praises the growth of good principles that result from revolution. Includes a handwritten correction on page three.

GLC04717.18

3 July 1852

Sumner, Charles (1811-1874)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Robert Adams

Thanks Adams, possibly an underground railroad conductor, for the invitation to Independence Day events at Fall River, Massachusetts, but cannot make it. Sends his sentiments instead which he calls trite but necessary. "Defenders of the Constitution, let us not forget the principles of the Declaration; but for the equal support of both, in the spirit of our fathers, without compromise & with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, let us mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes & our sacred honor." Addressed to Robert Adams as Chairman.

GLC07356.01

5 July 1852

Douglass, Frederick (1818-1895)

Pamphlet

Title: Oration delivered in Corinthian Hall, Rochester

First Edition by Lee, Mann & Co. Douglass' famous fourth of July oration, given on the fifth. Douglass was asked by the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society to give the oration on the fourth, choosing the topic "the meaning of the Fourth to the Negro." Douglass' famous peroration: "Are the great principles of political freedom and natural justice [of the Fourth], embodied in the Declaration of Independence, extended to us? .... This Fourth of July is yours, not mine.

GLC06829

13 August 1852

Smith, Gerrit (1797-1874)

Printed document

Title: To the Liberty Party of the County of Madison

Smith addresses the Pittsburgh Convention of the Liberty Party. Urges the Convention to organize a permanent party, and to "declare slavery to be utterly incapable of legalization."

GLC04717.34

October 1852

Smith, Gerrit (1797-1874)

Printed document

Title: National Liberty Party: at the National Liberty Party Convention, held in Syracuse September 30th, 1852, the following resolutions reported by Gerrit Smith, as chairman of the Business Committee, were unanimously adopted...

The Convention, held in Syracuse 30 September and 1 October 1852, chose to nominate William Goodell as President and S. M. Bell as Vice President. Includes Gerrit Smith's address to the Party. Lists officers nominated to lead the New York State Liberty Party Convention.

GLC04717.35

5 November 1852

Smith, Gerrit (1797-1874)

Printed document

Title: To the voters of the Counties of Oswego and Madison

Complains that he was nominated for a Congressional seat, a position he did not seek. Assures he will not resign, but will perform his duty, pursuing abolition from his position. Includes his political creed, asserting that slavery is not in the Federal Constitution, that free trade is the necessary outgrowth of human brotherhood, and that political rights encompass all persons, among other beliefs. Contains a pencil note at the top.

GLC04717.36

5 November 1852

Smith, Gerrit

Broadsheet

Title: To the voters of Oswego and Madison counties New York

Thanking them for electing him to a seat in Congress, and reprising his anti-slavery, pro-equality platform.

GLC09329.02

14 December 1852

Stowe, Harriet Beecher (1811-1896)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Ralph Wardlaw

Writes to thank Wardlaw for his invitation to visit Scotland. Mentions her surprise at the success of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," her belief that the work was divinely inspired, and her hope that its popularity shows Christ has mercy to the cause of abolishing slavery. States she will visit Scotland and notes that she is currently working on a "Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin."

GLC04631

1853

Griffiths, Julia (d. 1895)

Book

Title: Autographs for freedom.

Published by John P. Jewett and Company. In the preface, Griffiths writes, "The proceeds of the sale of 'Autographs for Freedom,' will be devoted to the dissemination of light and truth on the subject of slavery throughout the country." Griffiths writes on behalf of the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society. Testimonies are followed by lithographed signatures. Includes the signatures of William H. Seward, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lewis Tappan, Horace Greeley, and Charles Sumner, among others. Contains "The Heroic Slave," by Frederick Douglass.

GLC05167

1853

Hale, Sarah Josepha Buell (1788-1879)

Book

Title: Liberia; or Mr. Peyton's experiments.

304 pages of text followed by twelve pages of advertisements. Published by Harper & Brothers. Contains sticker from Bryant Circulatory Library Association of Roslyn, New York.

GLC05831

1853

Northup, Solomon (b. 1808)

Book

Title: Twelve years a slave: narrative of Solomon Northup, a citizen of New York, kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and rescued in 1853, from a cotton plantation near the red river, in Louisiana.

Published in Auburn by Derby and Miller; Buffalo, New York by Derby, Orton and Mulligan; and Cincinnati, Ohio by Henry W. Derby. Woodcut illustrations. Northup dedicates the book to Harriet Beecher Stowe.

GLC05840

1853

Griffiths, Julia (d. 1895)

Book

Title: Autographs for freedom

An anthology of signed articles, poems, etc., by men and women prominent in the anti-slavery movement. Includes Frederick Douglass's "The Heroic Slave." The signatures are in facsimile. Published by John P. Jewett and Company for the Rochester Anti-Slavery Society as a fund raiser. Edited by Griffiths, who signed (in print) in the preface: "On behalf of 'The Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society,' Julia Griffiths, Secretary."

GLC08949

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