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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.

Agassiz, Louis (1807-1873) to unknown

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02475.01 Author/Creator: Agassiz, Louis (1807-1873) Place Written: Cambridge, Massachusetts Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 22 June 1853 Pagination: 1 p. ; 25 x 19.5 cm. Order a Copy

Discusses his observations of and desire to obtain specimens of turtle eggs (species unspecified).

Biography: Louis Agassiz was a widely-respected, Swiss-born paleontologist and systematist, known as the "father of glaciology" because of his theory of ice ages. In 1846, he became the first professor of zoology and geology at Harvard and established its Natural History Museum.

Agassiz, Louis, 1807-1873

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