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.

Knox, Henry (1750-1806) to Joseph Barrell

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.03644 Author/Creator: Knox, Henry (1750-1806) Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph letter Date: 23 August 1787 Pagination: 1 p. : docket ; 32.3 x 20.2 cm. Order a Copy

Hopes Barrell has a successful voyage to China. Asks Barrell to consign his vessel or vessels in Canton (Guangzhou) to Messrs [Samuel] Shaw and [Thomas] Randall. Writes, "one or the other of those adventurous Americans will be there - and more honestt and punctuality cannot be found in any two mortals..." See GLC02437.03652 for Barrell's reply. See GLC02437.03637, .03638, and.03647 for related documents.

Barrell, a Boston merchant, was one of the financier's of the expeditions of the Columbia Rediviva and Lady Washington to the Northwest Pacific and China in the late 1780s.

Knox, Henry, 1750-1806
Barrell, Joseph, 1739-1804
Shaw, Samuel, 1754-1794
Randall, Thomas, ?-1811

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