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.

359 search results

Showing results 351 - 359

Pages

10 May 1878

Garrison, William Lloyd (1805-1879)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John Greenleaf Whittier

Garrison replies to a letter from Whittier, the Quaker poet and abolitionist. Discusses the deaths of other abolitionists. Whittier had informed Garrison of the death of Captain Jonathan Walker, a fellow abolitionist.

GLC05748

1879

Pettit, Eber

Book

Title: Sketches in the history of the Underground Railroad...

Title continued: "Comprising many thrilling incidents of the escape of fugitives from slavery and the perils to those who aided them." First edition, with mounted albumen photograph frontispiece of Pettit. Original publishers brown cloth. Pettit was one of the chief conductors of the Underground Railroad. Not in Blockson Collection. Schomburg 326.973F-P, Work p.338.

GLC06839

1881

Douglass, Frederick (1818-1895)

Book

Title: Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, is a biography of Frederick Douglass. This book is broken down into 41 chapters in two parts. There is also an appendix at the end of the book. There are 18 engravings throughout the book.

GLC09659

1883

Still, William (1821-1902)

Book

Title: Still's underground rail road records. Revised edition. With a life of the author. Narrating the hardships, hairbreadth escapes and death struggles of the slaves in their efforts for freedom.

Contains woodcut illustrations. Published by Still. Includes a printed portrait of Still opposite title page. An exhaustive volume containing narratives, testimonies, and biographies.

GLC05844

16 January 1886

Adams, Anne Brown (1843-1926)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Alexander M. Ross

Hopes he enjoyed seeing "your 'refugees,'" probably referring to the slaves which Ross helped escape before emancipation. Says "It is well that we sometimes are allowed to reap a rich harvest of gratitude for our labors for others, in this world, if we did not we might sometimes become weary in well doings." Is still forwarding his works on John Brown to a San Francisco paper in the hope they will be published. Mentions hardships of motherhood and approach of Christmas.

GLC03007.13

26 April 1887

Unknown

Pamphlet

Title: A sketch of Henry Franklin and family

Date written as "4 mo., 26th, 1887." Contains an extract from the Philadelphia Inquirer regarding the death of Henry Franklin's son. The extract is included as a reflection of the lack of racial prejudice in France, where Franklin's son died. Includes a biographical description of Franklin, described as "the venerable colored janitor of the Academy of Fine Arts." Reports that Franklin's slave name was Bill Budd. States that Franklin serves as Treasurer of the Colored Baptist Church in Philadelphia.

GLC06120

1896

Johnson, Homer Uri (fl. 1896)

Book

Title: From Dixie to Canada: romance and realities of the underground railroad

Second edition. Printed by H.U. Johnson. Includes a printed frontispiece photograph of Johnson. Johnson gathered the stories within this book from "personal observation, extensive reading, visitations along many of the old lines, and numerous interviews and extensive correspondence with those heroic men and women who dared their fortunes and their personal liberty in the cause of humanity and right..."

GLC06145

12 May 1899

Thompson, Ruth Brown (1829-1904)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Alexander M. Ross

She and all of her family hope that Ross will come to visit them. Praises him for his tireless work for others. Says she never met Lucretia Mott, nor Harriet Tubman, but admires them both and says of Tubman "what an old soldier she has been. Recounts a visit with old friends. Last two pages found on page 24 of GLC3007.56.

GLC03007.48

January 1929

Harmon, George (fl. 1929-)

Pamphlet

Title: Douglas and the Compromise of 1850

GLC08880.142

Showing results 351 - 359

Pages