Our Collection

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.

Sumner, Charles (1811-1874) [Check signed by Charles Sumner]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02095.33 Author/Creator: Sumner, Charles (1811-1874) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Ephemera Date: 16 January 1873 Pagination: 1 p. ; 7.8 x 21 cm. Order a Copy

Check for $354.51 payable to Mr. Elliott C. Cowdin from the First National Bank, Washington, D.C. Signed by Sumner. Endorsed on verso. With US inter-revenue stamp.

Cowdin, born in 1819, was an influential businessman who spent the first years of his career in Boston. He moved to New York in 1852, where he managed an importing firm. Cowdin was a leader of the Union League of New York.

Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874
Cowdin, Elliot Christopher, 1819-1880

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