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Start your research by watching the accompanying video and learning how to use the Collection Search to find your favorite documents, letters, maps, and more.
We've compiled some selected searches organized by era in our curated reference guides below.
We have more than 87,000 records online, with more than 70,000 images immediately available to subscribers.
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- Receive access to unpublished manuscripts and diaries, maps, pamphlets, printed books, newspapers, and photographs.
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Reference Guides
Colonization & Settlement, 1493–1763
Colonization & Settlement, 1493–1763
Beginning with a 1493 Latin printing of Columbus’s letter to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, the Collection contains more than 4,000 colonial-era documents that chronicle the establishment of European settlements in the New World, relations with American Indians, the French and Indian War, Quaker settlements, and commerce in the colonies. The materials in the Collection focus on the English and Dutch colonies, with some materials relating to the Spanish and French territories. Official documents include treaties between European powers and American Indians, Acts of Parliament, and decrees of the colonial governments. The colonists’ letters describe the hardships of daily life, relations with American Indians, the establishment of communities, and economic activity.
Selected searches in the Collection’s catalog
- A 1493 Latin printing of Christopher Columbus’s letter to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain
- Pope Alexander VI’s 1493 Papal Bull granting Spain exclusive rights to the New World
- Letters, documents, and maps exploring the relations between the colonists and American Indian peoples
- Sebastian Brandt’s 1622 letter from Jamestown, Virginia, one of the earliest surviving letters written by an ordinary colonist who held no official position
- The Livingston papers with personal letters as well as materials related to politics, business, and land ownership in colonial New York, from 1661 to 1728
- Letters from William Penn are in our materials related to Quaker settlement in the colonies
- Correspondence regarding Elizabeth Woodhouse, a young Quaker woman who wanted to immigrate to the colonies without her family
- Maps of the colonial era (prior to 1763)
American Revolution, 1763–1783
American Revolution, 1763–1783
The Gilder Lehrman Collection contains materials written by more than 2,000 individuals who fought in and lived through the American Revolution. These firsthand accounts were written by leaders, soldiers, and civilians and include the perspectives of American Indians, African Americans, and women. The documents discuss not only the military and political aspects of the war, but also the private opinions of contemporary people. The experiences of soldiers, loyalists, and prisoners of war are recorded in numerous letters, diaries, orderly books, and other manuscripts.
Selected searches in the Collection’s catalog
- Materials relating to women during the American Revolution
- Broadsides
- Materials relating to African Americans during the American Revolution
- Maps (1763–1783)
- Henry Knox’s business papers detailing early book selling in New England
- Articles of Confederation
- Smallpox
- The correspondence between American founders and English historian Catharine Macaulay Graham
- Letters and documents to, from, and about Lucy Knox, daughter of loyalists and wife of Henry Knox, George Washington’s chief of artillery
- Spying and treason
- Materials relating to Benedict Arnold
- The Battle of Trenton
- The surrender of British General Burgoyne’s army at Saratoga in 1777 and the plight of the “convention army”
- The siege and surrender at Yorktown, including a contemporary manuscript copy of the Articles of Capitulation
- Materials relating to children and families during the American Revolution
- Newspapers and news clippings from the American Revolution
- Diaries
- Materials relating to artillery units in the American Revolution
- Materials relating to health, medicine, and injuries
- Materials documenting mental health issues during the American Revolution
- Documents relating to American Indian history
- Materials relating to loyalists
- Materials relating to the Sons of Liberty
- Materials discussing the Declaration of Independence
The New Nation, 1784–1800
The New Nation, 1784–1800
These materials address the creation of the US Constitution from the failure of the Articles of Confederation through the controversial election of 1800 in both official records and personal correspondence. Documents also illustrate the turbulence of this era as the United States struggled to create a national identity.
Selected searches in the Collection’s catalog
- Articles of Confederation
- Letters discuss epidemics, such as yellow fever, in the founding era and their impact on the country
- Relations with American Indians
- Shays’ Rebellion (1786–1787)
- Documents relating to the US Constitutional Convention
- George Washington’s inauguration
- Whiskey Rebellion (1794)
Expansion & Reform, 1800–1860
Expansion & Reform, 1800–1860
The conflict over slavery, the growth of federal power, and the territorial expansion of the United States figure prominently in the Collection. Thousands of letters, documents, broadsides, and pamphlets focus on slavery and abolition. Other materials in this period cover a wide range of topics including the Bank of the United States, removal of American Indians from tribal lands, the Nullification Crisis, Jacksonian politics, settlement of the Mormons in Utah, the Mexican-American War, and Texas.
Selected searches in the Collection’s catalog
- Abolition
- Slave sale materials
- Bank of the US
- Materials relating to the lives of enslaved people
- Indian removal
- Texas history including colonization, independence from Mexico, and annexation by the United States
- The papers of Army surgeon John B. Moore written during the Utah Expedition and the Mormon Wars
- Maps
- The slave revolt on the Amistad, including handwritten transcripts of testimony given by the Africans during the trial in Connecticut
- John English’s Mississippi plantation journals totaling more than 400 pages, including lists of enslaved people and how much cotton they picked per day
- Nullification Crisis
- The US Navy’s African Squadron’s efforts to suppress the illegal import of Africans for the purpose of enslaving them
- Runaway slave broadsides
- Rare petitions from free Black people in Texas who were forced into slavery
The Civil War, 1861–1865
The Civil War, 1861–1865
Letters and documents recount the secession crisis and the American Civil War through general orders, orderly books, recruitment broadsides, maps, photographs, newspapers, and the journals, official dispatches, and personal letters of military commanders, politicians, soldiers, and civilians. This archive includes letters and diaries written by statesmen, soldiers, and civilians that provide unique perspectives on virtually every aspect of the Civil War, including battles, life on the home front, Lee’s surrender, Lincoln’s assassination, and prisoner-of-war experiences. Thousands of soldiers’ letters and diaries, most of them unpublished, capture the experience of the common soldier and his family in great detail.
Selected searches in the Collection’s catalog
- Cartoons, prints, sketches, and engravings of battles, scenic views, and camp life, including published engravings and hand-drawn sketches by soldiers
- Unique objects, including an enslaved child’s doll, election ephemera, and mourning ribbons
- The impact of volunteer nurses in the Civil War is evident in the letters written by patients to Sarah Ogden
- Broadsides, including recruitment posters
- Period photographs capturing both battlefields and personal portraits
- Maps
- Newspapers
- A collection of rare newspapers printed on wallpaper
- Documents relating to the Emancipation Proclamation
- Soldiers’ letters, photographs, official documents, maps, and sketches from the Battle of Gettysburg
- Lincoln’s assassination
Post-Civil War America, 1865–1900
Post–Civil War America, 1865–1900
A variety of materials demonstrates the rise and fall of civil rights for African Americans during the latter half of the nineteenth century, including constitutional amendments, sharecropper contracts, and discussions of segregation and voting rights. Other items from this time period document relations with American Indians and the Spanish-American War.
Selected searches in the Collection’s catalog
- John Quincy Adams Ward’s archive of designs, drawings, studies, sketches, and supporting paperwork
- Presidential pardons
- American Indians, 1861–1877
- Reconstruction
- Letters and documents received by Blanche K. Bruce, the first African American to serve a full term in the US Senate
- Letters by Daniel and Nancy Hemans, two Santee Indians who served as missionaries in South Dakota
- Gilded Age
- Materials relating to race relations and Jim Crow
- American Indians, 1877–1900
- Frederick Douglass
Twentieth Century
Twentieth Century
A select group of materials highlights the major events of the twentieth century, including World War I, World War II, women’s suffrage, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Cold War.
Selected searches in the Collection’s catalog
- Progressive Era to New Era
- The US Navy and the Boxer Rebellion in China
- Women’s suffrage
- World War I documents
- NAACP
- Great Depression
- New Deal
- Communism
- World War II
- Letters from Lieutenant Sidney Diamond, written from Pacific theater during World War II
- Major General John Hilldring’s archive of materials relating to his military service and his position as assistant secretary of state for the occupied areas
- A collection of items related to the Manhattan Project
- 1945–present
- The Civil Rights Movement