Items and Collections

Date of Original
1493/2002

Subject
United States--History--Sources
United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783
United States--Civil War, 1861-1865
United States--History--1815-1861
Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)
United States--History--1865-1898
United States--History, Military
United States--Social conditions
United States--Politics and government
United States--Civilization
United States. Army--Military life
Confederate States of America. Army--Military life
Soldiers--United States--Correspondence
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal narratives
United States--Race relations--History
Race relations
Africans American--Civil rights
African Americans--Politics and government
Civil rights movements--United States
Civil rights--United States
Social justice--United States
Social problems--United States
Slavery--United States
Anti-slavery movements--United States
Slaves--United States
Segregation--United States
Race discrimination--United States
Discrimination--United States

Location
United States, New York, New York County, New York, 40.7142691, -74.0059729

Medium
photographs
texts (document genres)
letters (correspondence)
diaries
maps
books
pamphlets
legal documents
speeches
government records
records
reports
judicial records
decisions
broadsides
posters
visual works
legislative records
legislative acts

Description
"The Gilder Lehrman Collection, on deposit at the New-York Historical Society, 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. The collection 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Proclamation, the Thirteenth Amendment, a rare printed copy of the first draft of the Constitution, and thousands of unpublished Civil War soldiers' letters."--Collections page.
A description of the Collection's holdings by era includes the following: the Colonial Era, the Founding Era, Slavery and the Antebellum Era, the Civil War and Reconstruction Era, the Modern Era, and Women's History. Holdings pertaining to civil rights for African Americans include: copies of the Emancipation Proclamation; a 1963 report on the state of civil rights in the United States from Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to President John F. Kennedy; the United States Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision declaring segregated schools unconstitutional; a 1960 New Orleans broadside promoting a boycott of Ford Motor Co. for its support of the Civil Rights Movement; Governor George C. Wallace's 1964 reply to a letter from Pamela Martin of Cedar Springs, Michigan, in which he defends the status quo of segregation in Alabama and blames "outside agitators" for unrest between black and white citizens; a 1919 Thanksgiving address by Reverend Francis J. Grimke examining unrest following World War I, discussing African Americans' lack of civil rights, and exploring the interaction between race issues and religion; a copy of an 1873 "act to protect all persons in their civil rights, in the state of Arkansas, and to furnish means for their vindication"; a copy of a 1968 poster in support of the sanitation workers' strike in Memphis, Tennessee, which states "I am a man"; and a pair of abolitionist movement slave tokens from the eighteenth or nineteenth century.
The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for the aggregation and enhancement of partner metadata.

Metadata URL
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/collections

Rights Holder
For the Gilder Lehrman Collection all rights and Reproduction inquires and request contact: Reference@GilderLehrman.org

Contributing Institution
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History