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.

Lee, Robert E. (1807-1870) to Anna Fitzhugh

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC09256 Author/Creator: Lee, Robert E. (1807-1870) Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 6 June 1860 Pagination: 4 p. Order a Copy

To cousin Anna Fitzhugh, an intimate letter written on the eve of the Civil War, reporting on family news and revealing his personal anxieties and troubles: "A divided heart I have too long had, & a divided life too long led. That may be one cause of the small progress I have made on either hand, my professional & civil career. Success is not always attained by a single undivided effort. It rarely follows a halting vacillating course. My military duties require me here, whereas my affections & urgent domestic claims call me away. And thus I live & am unable to advance either. But while I live I must toil & trust."

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