Our Collection

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.

Randolph, John (1783-1833) to Frances Bland Coalter

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00496.212 Author/Creator: Randolph, John (1783-1833) Place Written: Birane, Virginia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 18 September 1808 Pagination: 2 p. ; 25 x 20 cm Order a Copy

Written by Randolph as a Virginia Congressman to his sister. Writes after learning she has been ill and hopes to visit the warm springs at which she is recuperating. Says he would have been home sooner but an unexpected demand for money left him without the means to pay for his passage home until after the court session was over. Tells her "This fact is for yourself alone; for altho' I am not ashamed of my poverty, I do not choose that it should be unnecessarily disclosed." Although he wanted nothing more than to visit her, he claims that the expedition "like everyone other which [my desire] has formed, seems doomed to perpetual disappointment." Says he has not travelled far from home since retuning from Washington, except for the court houses in the four counties in his district. Postscript says his household has been afflicted with the influenza.

Randolph served fourteen terms as a representative from Virginia and one term as a senator.

Randolph, John, 1773-1833
Bland Coalter, Frances, fl. 1803-1809

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