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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) [Patent for John Templeman's improvement in the chain bridge]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC07328 Author/Creator: Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Document signed Date: 16 August 1808 Pagination: 5 p. ; 35 x 29.9 cm. Order a Copy

Signed by Jefferson as President. Countersigned by James Madison as Secretary of State and Caesar Augustus Rodney as Attorney General. Templeman's written description of his improvement is signed by Thomas Corcoran and John Oto as witnesses. The final page, signed by Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, contains a written description of several diagrams of Templeman's invention. Sealed and bound with faded white ribbon.

Henry Leavitt Ellsworth served as the United States Commissioner of Patents 1835-1845.

Corcoran, Thomas, fl. 1808
Ellsworth, Henry Leavitt, 1791-1858
Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826
Madison, James, 1751-1836
Oto, John, fl. 1808
Rodney, C. A. (Caesar Augustus), 1772-1824
Templeman, John, fl. 1808-1810

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