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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.

Macaulay, Catharine (1731-1791) [On W Macaulays History of England]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01794.01 Author/Creator: Macaulay, Catharine (1731-1791) Place Written: s.l. Type: Poem Date: 30 November 1763 Pagination: 1p ; docket : 31.6 x 20.5 cm. Order a Copy

Examines the role of women.

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After the death of her husband George Macaulay in 1766, Catharine Macaulay married an Anglican minister William Graham. Letters from her female descendents are in GLC 1795. Notable in that collection are letters of her daughter, Catharine Sophia Macaulay [Gregorie], to Macaulay while the latter toured America and France. This collection of Lady Catharine's correspondence was broken-up for public sale in 1993. The Gilder Lehrman Collection has also acquired other letters written to her, including GLC 1784.01-1800.04. There are approximately 190 items between these accession numbers. GLC 1784-1793 and 1796-1800 are individual documents written by important American figures including John Adams, Ezra Stiles, John Dickinson, William Cooper, Richard Henry Lee, Mercy Otis Warren and the pseudonymous "Sophronia." Most of the documents relate to the events leading the Revolution. A few, notably the letters from Mercy Otis Warren and "Sophronia" concern the new Constitution and the French Revolution.

[Draft Created by Crowdsourcing]
On M Macaulays History of England
30 Nov 1763

Born without Souls! born but for Man's delight!
To Charm the sensual Touch and wandering sight
This the Sole use of woman?-impious turk!
Profane Reviler of Heavins fairest work!
Shall bolts and [bars] their noble fire restrain
By Genioses [sic] as by beauty formid to reign
To empire here one fair Superior see,
Who bids evin Lordly man himself be free.
No [Priestly] jargon cramps her native flame,
No Party nonsense warps generous [aim]
To man she points the paths his [sires] have trod
Bursts his fond Chains, and snaps the statesman Rod
And while, by pay or prejudice misled,
S-t's and [R]-e's enshrine the guilty dead;
She from the pedants hearse and tyrants grave
Strips the false flames that slave Historians gave
And soaring free, where man has Chockid the [flight]
Shows woman fitter both to Rule and write. -

Macaulay, Catharine, 1731-1791

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