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.

Schurz, Carl (1829-1906) to Norton

High-resolution images are available to schools and libraries via subscription to American History, 1493-1943. Check to see if your school or library already has a subscription. Or click here for more information. You may also order a pdf of the image from us here.

Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02870 Author/Creator: Schurz, Carl (1829-1906) Place Written: Westchester, New York Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 14 January 1895 Pagination: 2 p. ; 15.5 x 13.6 cm. Order a Copy

Thanks Norton for the invitation to the Tavern Club dinner, and wonders whether they can plan to meet when he attends a committee meeting on a date in February to be determined. Adds, "I do not take a gloomy view of the present condition of things in the United States, although there is, no doubt, much to disturb one's equanimity [?]. What buoys up my hope is that the enlightened public opinion of the country is now a stronger power than it has been for many years."

Carl Schurz (1829-1906) was a German revolutionary who emigrated to the United States and became a journalist, Ambassador to Spain, Union Army General during the Civil War, Republican Senator from Missouri, and Secretary of the Interior under President Rutherford B. Hayes. Norton is likely Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908), a professor of fine arts at Harvard who was active, with Schurz, in the Liberal Republican movement in the early 1870s. Both were also early environmentalists.

Norton, Charles Eliot, 1827-1908
Schurz, Carl, 1829-1906

Citation Guidelines for Online Resources