[Portrait] [of] James Fenimore Cooper/ [artist unknown].

Special Collection's autographed letters collection has continued to grow since the inception of Lehigh University in 1865. Special Collections' holdings include letters, manuscripts, and ephemera from famous pens throughout the centuries. In its digital incarnation, the archive will include letters from over 400 writers.

Beginning with William Pyx's 1484 deed of sale, the collection spans five centuries, including seventeenth-century letters from scientists and philosophers, as well as eighteenth-century letters from representative figures active in the American Revolution and early republic; the nineteenth-century holdings comprise letters from major writers in Europe and the United States as well as communications from significant scientists and artists.

Continuing through the Cold War period, the twentieth-century archive includes correspondence from all the Presidents through Richard Nixon as well as notes, telegrams, and letters from governors and members of Congress.