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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.

Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826) to Palmira Johnson

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC07150 Author/Creator: Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826) Place Written: Monticello, Virginia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 27 September 1823 Pagination: 1 p. + FF 15.8 x 18.5 cm Order a Copy

Sends a lock of hair (not included) and a "likeness of the head also from which it is shorn as taken by [Gilbert] Stewart." Written in the third person.

Th: Jefferson presents his compliments to mrs. Palmira Johnson and assures her that he is justly sensible of the kindness of the letter, and of the request she has been pleased to address to him. faithful endeavors to do right in the trusts confided to him by his country constitute the sum of his pretensions and if he has obtained the approbation of his fellow citizens, it is his abundant reward. If a lock of hairs, silvered by eighty winters could be worth a request from the authors of Rosalie he presumes he may venture to ask her acceptance of a likeness of the head also from which it is shorn as taken by Stewart and he [illegible] her the assurance of his most respectful salutations.

Monticello Sep. 27. 23.

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826

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