Our Collection

At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Colfax, Schuyler (1823-1885) [Photograph album of Major Schuyler Colfax]

High-resolution images are available to schools and libraries via subscription to American History, 1493-1943. Check to see if your school or library already has a subscription. Or click here for more information. You may also order a pdf of the image from us here.

Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC04689 Author/Creator: Colfax, Schuyler (1823-1885) Place Written: Various Type: Photograph album Date: circa 1861-1866 Pagination: 1 v. ; 103 carte de visites ; 27 x 20.2 cm. Order a Copy

Album belonging to Schuyler Colfax with over one hundred cartes des visite of New York, Washington, famous policians and other sights. Includes forty outdoor cartes of New York City by E & H.T. Anthony; 16 of Washington and environs by Gardner and by Gardner & Gibson; 12 of Richmond by George O. Ennis; and 5 of Boston by John Soule; 26 portraits by Anthony (Grant, Farragut, Sherman, etc.), Lee and Jefferson Davis by Vannerson and Jones, etc. The album is full calf with beaded decorations and brass clasp edges with all edges gilt, with silver beads sewn over original leather on cover. The album was assembled during the Civil War by Major Schuyler Colfax (1834-1894) an army engineer in Washington. Most images are identified in ink within the album and some are numbered in an unidentified hand on the verso. The range of outdoor cartes de visite is exceptional. Images of New York include: Broadway, Wall Street, Troops on Broadway for 4th of July, a Mass meeting in Union Square, City Hall, the Tombs [prison], Treasury Building, Brooklyn Ferry, and many scenes of Central Park, hotels, and churches. Images of war-damaged Richmond include: Libby Prison, Castle Thunder, the Petersburg Railroad Bridge, Dutch Gap Canal, the Virginia State Capitol, the Confederate White House and Virginia Hall.

Colfax, Schuyler, 1823-1885

Citation Guidelines for Online Resources