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.

Douglass, Frederick (1818-1895) to Christopher C. Sniffen

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03893.01 Author/Creator: Douglass, Frederick (1818-1895) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 19 May 1876 Pagination: 1 p. ; 24.4 x 19 cm. Order a Copy

Douglass writes to Sniffen, secretary for President Ulysses S. Grant. Informs Sniffen, "it will be convenient for me to call at the Executive Mansion on Monday Morning, and if I learn nothing from you meanwhile requesting otherwise I will call on Monday at eleven o. clock am."

President Hayes named Douglass Marshal of the District of Columbia. The Presidential appointment made Douglass the first black man to hold a position requiring Senate approval. William S. McFeely, Frederick Douglass (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1991): 289.

316. A. St. N.E.
Washington D.C. May 19. 1876
C.C. Sniffen Esqr:
Dear Sir:
In answer to your note of today I have to say that it will be convenient for me to call on the Executive Mansion on Monday Morning, and if I learn nothing from you meanwhile requesting other wise I will call on Monday at Eleven O. Clock AM.
Respectfully yours
Fred[eric]k Douglass

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895
Sniffen, C. C., fl. 1876
Grant, Ulysses S., 1822-1885

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