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.

Randall, Thomas (d. 1811) to Henry Knox

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.02942 Author/Creator: Randall, Thomas (d. 1811) Place Written: New York, New York Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 4 February 1784 Pagination: 2 p. ; 30.7 x 18.6 cm. Order a Copy

Captain Randall expresses his gratitude to Knox and his family: "To find an asylum that enabled me to recover my feelings in so distressed a situation, when the calumniating tongue of the world was endeavoring to ruin me forever, was a protection of which my heart will ever retain the most lively sense..." Notes that the following day, he and Samuel Shaw will depart for China (Shaw was a commercial agent on this voyage for a group of Boston and New York merchants). Includes an autograph note signed by Shaw to Knox: "I have everything to thank you for on my own account- but your good ness to the writer of the aforegoing letter is an addition, which will ever dwell on my mind with increasing pleasure."

Randall, Thomas, d. 1811
Shaw, Samuel, 1754-1794
Knox, Henry, 1750-1806

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