Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America

Sample Letter to Community Groups

(NOTE: In mailings to the media and community groups, include announcements, flyers and brochures. Letters to the media should also include press kits, offer assistance in developing stories, and include a library contact.)

(DATE)

Dear
(PERSONALIZE GREETING WHENEVER POSSIBLE) :

The
(NAME OF LIBRARY) is pleased to announce the opening of a groundbreaking new exhibition, “Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America,” on
(DATE). The library is one of only 40 libraries in the United States selected to host the exhibition.

“Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America” tells the remarkable story of the Founding Father Americans don’t really know. Hamilton’s astonishing rise in five short years from an orphaned, 15-year-old West Indies immigrant to George Washington’s war time aide, and later, at age 32, the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury, has been overshadowed by the sensational details of his death in a duel with Aaron Burr. Hamilton was a complex, brilliant and controversial figure—a Revolutionary War patriot and soldier, financial and legal genius, ardent opponent of slavery, and planner and co-author of the
Federalist Papers, which helped convince Americans to ratify the new Constitution.

Hamilton was the chief architect of many of the financial and legal institutions and policies which have helped the U.S. to become a global leader in the two centuries after his death. His economic strategies saved the young country from staggering Revolutionary war debts, and he founded the Bank of the United States and refined the concept of judicial review. By the time Hamilton retired from his Treasury post in 1795, the United States was fiscally sound and poised to become a major world economic and political force.

“Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America” is a national traveling exhibition organized by the New-York Historical Society, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and the American Library Association. The traveling exhibition has been made possible in part through a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, dedicated to expanding American understanding of human experience and cultural heritage. The traveling exhibition is based on the New-York Historical Society’s exhibition commemorating the 200th anniversary of Hamilton’s death as well as the 200 th anniversary of the founding of the Society in 1804.

We would like to invite you to a special preview o f the exhibition on
(DAY, DATE) at
(TIME) at the library
(OR PARTICULAR LOCATION IN LIBRARY).
(NAME) will be the guest speaker. A news release included with this correspondence provides additional details. Please contact me at
(TELEPHONE, E-MAIL) if you have questions.

We hope you can join us as we introduce this informative exhibition to our community.

Sincerely,