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.

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Unknown

Engraving

Title: [Engraving of a young Alexander Hamilton]

Note signed by Frederick Reynolds indicates the image was engraved in mezzotint and printed in color. Accompanied (but unrelated to) GLC02908.01.

GLC02908.02

4 January 1776

Hamilton, Alexander (1757-1804)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John Jay

Writes that he meant to send this letter by the last post but missed it. Informs that a proclamation has been issued to dissolve the old assembly to elect a new one. Reports that the Tories are saying they will dominate the election but he believes the Whigs will prevail. Indicates that he would like Jay to come but that his presence is not absolutely necessary. Addressed to Jay in Philadelphia, free franked in New York.

GLC00007

22 June 1776

Mason, David (1726-1794)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Henry Knox

Lieutenant Colonel Mason relates intelligence from a private in the General's Guard named Lara Fraga, who claims several men in Captain Alexander Hamilton's company have enlisted in the "minesterall troops," meaning the Ministerial or British army. The currently detained private volunteered to identify them. This was part of the Continental Army's successful efforts to foil a Tory plot to capture or assassinate George Washington.

GLC02437.00344

October 1776

Hamilton, Alexander (1757-1804)

Autograph document signed

Title: Return of the Artillery Company of the State of New York commanded by Alexander Hamilton

Signed in text in the third person in the title ("Alexander Hamilton"). Lists numbers of men of various rank present in varying capacities.

Signer of the U.S. Constitution.

GLC02437.00468

circa 1777-1781

Hamilton, Alexander (1757-1804)

Autograph document signed

Title: [Order to a Deputy Commissary General of Purchases] [incomplete]

Orders to agree to a requisition. This is a fragment of a larger document, so the identity of the deputy commissary general is unknown. Signed A. Hamilton, A. D. C.

GLC02307

5 April 1778

Washington, George (1732-1799)

Letter signed

Title: to Thomas Wharton, Jr.

Forwards a letter from Mrs. Mary Pemberton to Wharton, President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. Pemberton had requested a passport for wagons with supplies for her husband, Israel Pemberton, and other Philadelphia Quakers exiled to Virginia. Suggests indulging her request.

GLC00639.31

14 April 1780

Hamilton, Alexander, (1755-1804)

Autograph letter

Title: [to Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler]

Hamilton writes to Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler to confirm his engagement to her daughter, Elizabeth Schuyler. He expresses his sincerity in his feelings writing, "I leave it to my conduct rather than expressions to testify the sincerity of my affection for her, the respect I have for her parents, the desire I shall always feel to justify their confidence and merit their friendship."

GLC09628

14 May 1780

Hamilton, Alexander (1757-1804)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to James Duane

Hamilton, serving as General George Washington's aide, asks Duane, a member of the Continental Congress, to help expedite a congressional action supplying Washington's army in anticipation of the arrival of a French fleet in June, 1780.

GLC03636

6 September 1780

Hamilton, Alexander (1755-1804)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to James Duane

Hamilton, aide-de-camp to Washington, expresses his disgust with General Horatio Gates' disastrous defeat and consequent flight from the Battle of Camden, South Carolina on 16 August 1780. Gates retired in disgrace after Camden, but was cleared two years later by a Congressional inquiry.

GLC06671

5 October 1780

Hamilton, Alexander (1757-1804)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Elizabeth Schuyler

Begins a dramatic love letter to his fiancee with, " I have told you, and I told you truly that I love you too much . . . I meet you in every dream. . . I am to be thus monopolized by a little nut brown maid like you and from a Statesman and soldier metamorphosed into a puny lover." Continues on to say how much he misses her, but that he must remain until Lieutenant Colonel Robert Hanson Harrison returns. States that he will not be delayed past November and assures her that he is doing everything in his power to return.

GLC00773

12 October 1780

Hamilton, Alexander (1755-1804)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Francois Marquis de Barbe-Marbois

To Marbois, the secretary of the French Ambassador, who later served as Intendent of Santo Domingo and minister of finance under Napoleon, under whom he sold Louisiana to the U.S. Hamilton concludes his letter by agreeing with Marbois about America's "feebleness and temporary expedients" in military affairs; and notes that he views "our affairs in a gloomy light." Hamilton ends by mentioning rumors of a peace congress by the neutral powers at the Hague.

GLC00012

28 November 1780

Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de (1757-1834)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Alexander Hamilton

States that he arrived last night and will set out for Philadelphia. Writes about his recommendation to General George Washington that Hamilton should be made Adjutant General. Explains the reasons he gave in support of his recommendation. Assures that Washington values Hamilton's friendship greatly. Comments on his own friendship with and fondness for Hamilton. Gives compliments to Mrs. Hamilton, General Philip Schuyler, and the Schuyler family.

GLC03323

29 December 1780

Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de (1757-1834)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Richard Meade

Discusses selection of an American envoy being sent to France. Congress had decided to send an envoy extraordinary to France to secure a loan and improve supply shipments. Lafayette tried to help Alexander Hamilton attain this post, but failed. Says that all admitted Hamilton was the "best calculated for this mission," but "he is not very popular" and not a "Southern Man" so he was not chosen by the Congress. Instead John Laurens was selected. Inform his "very good friend" that a French officer will soon be arriving to meet Meade.

GLC03647

13 July 1781

Hamilton, Alexander, (1755-1804)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Elizabeth Hamilton

A love letter from Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Hamilton. In this romantic letter he states, "With no object of sufficient importance to occupy my attention here I am left to feel all the weight of our separation. I pass a great part of my time in company but my dissipations are a very imperfect suspension of my uneasiness. I was cherishing the melancholy pleasure of thinking of the sweets I had left behind and was so long to be deprived of, when a servant from Head Quarters presented me with your letters.

GLC09633

25 August 1781

Hamilton, Alexander, (1755-1804)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Elizabeth Hamilton

Alxander Hamilton writes to Elizabeth Hamliton that though he would love to see her and missed her very much it would not be prudent as the trip to Yorktown, Virginia could be hazardous. He also must be focused on his military endeavors. He mentions the possibility of her stress being bad for her pregnacy as well.

GLC09634

7 June 1782

Hamilton, Alexander (1757-1804)

Manuscript letter

Title: to Henry Knox

Later copy of letter from Alexander Hamilton to Henry Knox in GLC02437.01442, for which a transcript is available. Written by Hamilton after he left the Army to Major General Knox. Letter details Hamilton's opinions against retaliation for the execution of American Captain Joshua Huddy at the hand of New York Loyalists (this is reference to the well-known Huddy-Asgill Affair).

GLC02437.01444

7 June 1782

Hamilton, Alexander (1757-1804)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Henry Knox

Written by Hamilton after he left the Army to Major General Knox. Letter details Hamilton's opinions against retaliation for the execution of American Captain Joshua Huddy at the hand of New York Loyalists (this is reference to the well-known Huddy-Asgill Affair).

GLC02437.01442

24 July 1782

Knox, Henry (1750-1806)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Alexander Hamilton

Written by Major General Knox to Hamilton who had left the army in March 1782. References Hamilton's letter of 7 July. Discusses retaliation against "a captain of the 57 regmnt" (Captain Charles Asgill), for the murder of Captain Joshua Huddy by Loyalists. Asgill was to be executed after the British refused to hand over Lippincott, who the Americans said was responsible for Huddy's death. Washington felt he could not recede from this course of action but wants all other possibilities exhausted before the execution is carried out.

GLC02437.01498

circa 1783

Unknown

Manuscript document

Title: [List of states and corresponding Continental Congressman]

Lists Congressmens' last names. Includes Samuel Osgood (Massachusetts), John Collins (Rhode Island), Phillips White (New Hampshire), Oliver Wolcott (Connecticut), Alexander Hamilton (New York), Silas Condict (New Jersey), Richard Peters, Jr. (Pennsylvania), Philemon Dickinson (Delaware), [Daniel] Carroll (Maryland), James Madison (Virginia), Abner Nash (North Carolina), and [John] Rutledge (South Carolina). Date of creation previously inferred and written in pencil in a different hand.

GLC02437.02888

11 June 1783

Hamilton, Alexander (1757-1804)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to George Clinton

Writes to Clinton in Poughkeepsie, New York to inform him that he wants to return to private occupations and will resign his office as a New York member of the Continental Congress within ten days.

GLC00812

26 March 1784

Hamilton, Alexander (1757-1804)

Autograph document signed

Title: [Salary account for service in the Continental Congress]

Lists his salary for a 240 day term he served for the state of New York from 25 November 1782 to 30 July 1783 at five dollars a day for a total of $524. Also lists traveling expenses for 14 days. Lists credits to his account of $460 leaving a balance of $64. Mentions credits from Udnay Hay, W. Comfort Sands, and William Floyd. Hamilton signed at the bottom that he received the balance from Governor George Clinton. Autograph note signed by Peter S. Curtenius, the New York State auditor on the second page certifies that Hamilton is owed the $64.

GLC01605

13 October 1784

Hamilton, Alexander (1757-1804)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to John Chaloner

Informs Chaloner that he has drawn on him "in favor of Messrs. H. Solomon and J. Mordecai for one thousand pounds on account of Mr. Church."

GLC00154.06

circa 14 March 1785

Wadsworth, Jeremiah (1743-1804)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Henry Knox

Informs Knox he sent him and [Alexander?] Hamilton a salmon to share. Date taken from docket.

GLC02437.09818

March 1786

Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de (1757-1834)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Henry Knox

Asks that his regards be sent to William Knox, Alexander Hamilton, and all his friends. Says "My little Anecdote I send as it was given to me, but I will take farther informations at the Naval office Upon Every Circumstances."

GLC02437.03256

1 February 1787

Church, Angelica (1756-1814)

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

Angelica writes to her sister Elizabeth to announce that she will be coming to America in the spring as her health is good and all preparations are made. She mentions a Lady of both of theirs acquaintance and her lack of politeness in reciprocating invitations to events. Angelica inquires in her nephew Philip's education, and asks Elizabeth to "embrace my brother tell him how much I depend on him to form Philip for his country."

GLC09629.01

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