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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 John Hills

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.05039 Author/Creator: Knox, Henry (1750-1806) Place Written: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Type: Autograph letter Date: 30 June 1791 Pagination: 2 p. : docket ; 31.5 x 20.2 cm. Order a Copy

Written by Knox as Secretary of War to Captain [John] Hills, who was surveying a route for a canal from the Connecticut River to Boston. References Hills's letter of 23 June (GLC02437.05022), which gave him satisfaction. Writes, "In a work similar to the one on which you are employed, so remote from the contemplations of people generally, and of such magnitude, a person whose mind expands to the idea of its practicability and execution, runs no small danger of incurring strong and perpetual ridicule." States that Hills's last letter makes him believe something substantial is possible. Hopes his calculations are accurate, and asks him to write once a week.

Knox, Henry, 1750-1806
Hills, John, fl. 1771-1796

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