American historian and poet (1818 - 1877) who was the first writer to record the lives of women who contributed to the American Revolutionary War. Marvelous collection of approximately 170 letters sent to American writer, historian and poet Elizabeth F. Ellet by a wide assortment of influential 19th century figures, among which includes actors, authors, lawyers, politicians, educators, theologians, and other professions. The archive includes an alphabetized handwritten index, with corresponding number annotated in the upper right corner of each letter. Highlights include: John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, James Fenimore Cooper (2), Horace Greeley, and Washington Irving, with other notables including: Charles Francis Adams, Sr., James Waddel Alexander, Robert Woodward Barnwell, Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, F. Carroll Brewster, Andrew Butler, Catherine Van Cortland, William Cranch, George Washington Parke Custis, William J. Duane, Theodore Dwight, George Robert Lewis, Francis Lieber, Horace Mann, Lindley Murray, John G. Palfrey, Francis Wilkinson Pickens, Charles Constantine Pise, Joel Roberts Poinsett, William H. Prescott, William C. Preston, Eliza Susan Quincy, William Bradford Reed, Lorenzo Sabine, James H. Saye, Henry Schoolcraft, Henry Hopkins Sibley, William Gilmore Simms, Jared Sparks, Charles Stewart, Frederic Tudor, and James Watson Webb. The majority of the letters consist of responses regarding Ellet’s research on the roles of women in the American Revolutionary War; all are housed in a pair of three-ring binders. In overall fine condition.Format: Group lot