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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.

Field, Cyrus West (1819-1892) to James Tyler Ames

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02019 Author/Creator: Field, Cyrus West (1819-1892) Place Written: New York, New York Type: Letter signed Date: 29 November 1861 Pagination: 1 p. : docket ; 25 x 20 cm. Order a Copy

Field writes to Ames in Chicopee, Massachusetts. Writes, "As a personal favor to me will you consent to manufacture in the very best manner of the very best materials one repeating gun, similar to the one you saw exhibited to the President in Washington last summer, with four hundred steel cartridge chambers like one sent you this day by Adams & Co. Express." Asks whether Ames can take an order for fifty such guns, with twenty thousand steel cartridge chambers. Inquires as to the price for such an order, and instructs that the guns should be delivered to New York.

Field was a United States financier noted for the success of the first transatlantic cable. Ames headed Ames Manufacturing Company 1847-74, a Cannon foundry at Chicopee.

Field, Cyrus W. (Cyrus West), 1819-1892
Ames, James Tyler, 1810-1883

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