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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.

Monroe, James (1758-1831) [Patent for Jacob Bromwell's improvement of the wheat fan, or winnowing machine]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC04823.01 Author/Creator: Monroe, James (1758-1831) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Document signed Date: 26 November 1818 Pagination: 2 p. ; 35.8 x 28 cm. Order a Copy

Signed by James Monroe as President and countersigned by John Quincy Adams as Secretary of State and William Wirt as Attorney General. Features paper seal and green ribbon. On separate page, Bromwell's written description of his improvement is signed by William Thornton and William Elliot as witnesses.

William Thornton (1759-1828) was the designer of the U.S. Capitol building, former commissioner of the District of Columbia, and, at the time, commissioner of patents.

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848
Bromwell, Jacob, fl. 1818-1829
Elliot, William, 1773-1837
Monroe, James, 1758-1831
Thornton, William, 1759-1828
Wirt, William, 1772-1834

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