American History, Collections of the Gilder Lehrman Institute Module II: Civil War, Reconstruction and the Modern Era: 1860-1945

This Module has two main strands:

Civil War Letters, Diaries, Newspapers and Images, 1860-1865
This archive of around 20,000 letters, diaries and documents of Civil War participants captures army life, the home front, combat and politics. The whole course of the war is covered from the debate over secession to the peace and Lincoln’s assassination. All points of views are represented here from the humblest foot soldier to presidents and generals. There are rich collections of unpublished correspondence from both the Union and Confederate sides.

• Details the road to war with documents and correspondence on politics, slavery and secession.
• Key documents by major players such as Lee, Lincoln, Davis, Stuart and Grant
• Documents of African-American soldiers
• Newspapers from Confederate and Union states give journalistic context to events
• The home front and women and families during the Civil War
• Military documents, orders, medical records and maps

The Gilder Lehrman Collection 1865-1945
This archive covers American history from reconstruction to the end of World War II. It contains strong clusters of papers relating to presidents Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Cleveland, McKinley, Roosevelt, Wilson, Coolidge, Hoover and Roosevelt and a wealth of material by writers, industrialists and activists.  Strengths include Reconstruction, World War II and Political History.