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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.

McSherry, Eliza (b. 1829) to Henry F. McSherry

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03523.21.43 Author/Creator: McSherry, Eliza (b. 1829) Place Written: Littlestown, Pennsylvania Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 8 October 1865 Pagination: 4 p. ; 20.6 x 13.3 cm. Order a Copy

Written by Eliza to her brother Henry. References receiving his letter from the Cape of Good Hope. Is glad he is well and tells him his future "is in the hands of God, ask him to direct you, and it will all be right." Updates him on family and friends, telling him their brother Willie is now back home. Says "while the whole world has almost stood still you have been carried around to the other side of it. tho to us they have been nearly the same, I think you did well to enter the Navy when you did. you certainly could not have been doing anything better during the last four or five years and now that the struggle is over let your mind be at rest." Says God has been with him and has given him a chance at an honest career. Says a friend named Columbus Shriver was visiting with his mother and told her that his brothers are being tried for treason. Columbus said it was the first time he was home and that "his heart is yet with the South." Is reading a book on a Christian missionary to China. Says she was surprised there was so much learning among the Chinese. Says her town is undergoing an improvement and says the streets are being repaired. Says there was an election last week, but that it has not been decided who won, Democrats or Republicans.Letter is extremely faded and can only be read with difficulty.

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