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.

Guesner Refugee home, Camp Nelson, KY. [1864 ca.]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC05111.01.0213 Author/Creator: Guesner Place Written: [Fort Nelson, Ky.] Type: Photograph Date: 1864 ca. Pagination: 8 photographs 34.9 x 27.3 cm Order a Copy

Image of a dirt street with small white homes lining both sides. The street goes uphill and many of the homes have fences around the front yard. All of the people in the photo are African-American. A group of six children stand in the middle of the street in the foreground. Camp Nelson was a recruiting and training station for Federal soldiers during the war.

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