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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.

Brown, John Jr. (1821-1895) to Franklin B. Sanborn [Incomplete]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC05993 Author/Creator: Brown, John Jr. (1821-1895) Place Written: Put-In-Bay, Ohio Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 24 April 1887 Pagination: 23 p. ; 21 x 13.5 cm Order a Copy

Shares some of his views on business and religion, details events relating to his family and discusses his future plans. Does not mind being poor, so long as he can get by. Hopes to take up new work soon. Sends Sanborn a number of letters from other family members. Because his eyesight is so bad, and he is so busy with other work, Brown writes this letter over the course of a number of days, always writing extremely early in the morning. Pages five through nine are missing. The last page is a postscript written in different ink, and also signed.

Franklin Sanborn was a member of the Secret Six, the group that aided John Brown. He was a schoolmaster and friend to Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

Brown, John Jr., 1821-1895
Sanborn, F. B. (Franklin Benjamin), 1831-1917
Brown, John, 1800-1859

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