Digital Facsimiles Lafayette's friendship with America 10 items

Over 10,000 items comprise the Arthur H. and Mary Marden Dean Lafayette Collection. A sampling of sixty images and documents have been digitized and are presented in this web site, organized into seven thematic categories.

Browse items in the "Lafayette's friendship with America" category below.

1. General Lafayette's words at the tomb of George Washington [Mount Vernon]

Date:: October 17, 1824

2. Martha Washington's recipe for "The finest lip salve in the world"

Description:: Copied out by Eleanor Parke Custis, adopted daughter of the Washingtons, for Natalie, Mathilde, Clementine, Oscar, and Edmond Lafayette
Date:: December 17, 1824

3. Letter to Monroe regarding what was to become the "Monroe Doctrine"

Attribution:: Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de, 1757-1834
Date:: January 11, 1824

4. Letter concerning Lafayette's Louisiana lands

Description:: Written in Washington
Attribution:: Jefferson, Thomas
Date:: March 30, 1804

5. A page from "An Address of the young Ladies of the Lexington Female Academy" to Lafayette

Description:: The ornamental penmanship, embossed borders and pink ribbon make this an especially impressive example of the hundreds of letters and addresses presented to Lafayette in the course of his grand American Tour of 1824.
Attribution:: Lexington Female Academy

6. An Ode to Lafayette

Description:: Written by a Masonic brother "S. Woodworth" in New York, to be sung to the tune of "Hail to the Chief" at the grand Masonic Dinner, given by the Fraternity in the City of New York in honor of Gen. Lafayette
Attribution:: Woodworth, S.
Date:: ca. 1824-5

7. Letter from a poor woman hoping for financial aid from Lafayette

Description:: This is one of hundreds of such petitions received by Lafayette. [New York]
Date:: July 6, 1825

8. "A true copy of the constitution Doctor Smith proposes to present to the Sececa Nation and solicits the written approbation thereto of General La Fayette"

Description:: First page of a proposed constitution for the Seneca Nation, drafted by Dr. Job Smith, an "old soldier of the revolution" and "a Chief and Physician of the Seneca Nation of Indians." Accompanied by a letter and business card (front and back) from Smith. New York
Attribution:: Smith, Job
Date:: 1825