Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

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The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, founded in New York by Richard Gilder and Lewis E. Lehrman in 1994, was set up to promote the study and love of American history.

The Institute targets audiences ranging from students and scholars to the general public, and has become increasingly national and international in scope. Its activities include the following:

to create history-centered schools and academic research centers;
to organize seminars and enrichment programs for educators,
to sponsors lectures by eminent historians;
to produce print and electronic publications and traveling exhibitions;
to partner with school districts to implement "Teaching American History" grants;
to fund awards, including the Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and George Washington Book Prizes;
to offer fellowships for scholars to work in history archives, including the Gilder Lehrman Collection.

The Institute maintains a website:

to serve as a portal for American history on the Web;
to offer high-quality educational material for teachers, students, historians, and the public;
to provide up-to-the-minute information about the Institute's programs and activities.

[edit] The Gilder Lehrman Collection

The Collection contains more than 60,000 documents, detailing the political and social history of the United States. The Collection's holdings include manuscript letters, diaries, maps, photographs, printed books and pamphlets, ranging from 1493 through modern times. It is particularly rich with materials in the Revolutionary, Antebellum, Civil War and Reconstruction periods.

Highlights of the Collection include signed copies of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth Amendment, a rare printed copy of the first draft of the Constitution, and thousands of unpublished Civil War soldiers' letters. Letters written by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and others, vividly record the issues and events of their day. The writings of such notable women as Lucy Knox, Mercy Otis Warren and Catherine Macaulay discuss a variety of military, political and social issues.