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.

Crane, John (1744-1805) to Henry Knox

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.09684 Author/Creator: Crane, John (1744-1805) Place Written: West Point, New York Type: Manuscript letter Date: 11 March 1783 Pagination: 1 p. : docket ; 21 x 16.8 cm. Order a Copy

Consists of two letters written in the hand of Samuel Shaw, Knox's aide de camp. In the first, which composes the top half of the page, Colonel Crane and Lieutenant Colonel Stevens inform Major General Knox that upon inspection, a quantity of salted beef in the contractor's store has been found "unmerchantable and unfit for use." The bottom half of the page consists of a letter from Knox to [Daniel] Parker and [William] Duer. Knox informs them that the beef is putrefied and "grows worse and worse, so that I have been obliged to order the inspection."

Stevens, Ebenezer, 1751-1823
Knox, Henry, 1750-1806
Crane, John, 1744-1805
Duer, William, 1747-1799

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