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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.

Rush, Benjamin (1746-1813) to Ann Emily Rush Cuthbert

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC04998.02 Author/Creator: Rush, Benjamin (1746-1813) Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph letter Date: circa 1802-1813 Pagination: 1, 1 p. + addr 16.3 x 23.3 cm Order a Copy

Also written on by Cuthbert, Rush's eldest daughter. He writes, "permit me my dear child to remind you of the promises you made me the evening before we parted. I shall not be happy till I hear of your having fulfilled them. I send you herewith a copy of the ages of your brother's and sisters to be inserted in a blank leaf of the Bible I gave you. It will enable you to remember them with a good wish, or a blessing on their birth days." He includes the names and birthdays of twelve children and concludes with a personal salutation: "your popa & mama were married at Princeton Jany. 11. 1776." The verso has Cuthbert's notes on her marriage and her children from 1799 to 1810. Notes on the verso and recto in ball point, dated 28 January 1965, state that the promise was to read a chapter of the Bible "in the morning and one in the evening each day of her life" and identify the handwriting on the verso as that of Rush's daughter. Benjamin Rush was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

First part of circa date inferred from the address on the letter, which is to Ann Emily Rush Cuthbert in Canada, and one year earlier than the birth of her child in Canada. Second part is the year of Rush's death.

Rush, Benjamin, 1746-1813

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