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.

Unknown Scouts and guides of the Army of the Potomac, Brandy Station, VA. March 1864.

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC05111.01.0372 Author/Creator: Unknown Place Written: [s.l.] Type: Photograph Date: 1864/03 Pagination: 1 photograph 15.7 x 22.9 cm Order a Copy

This large group includes two black contraband wearing white aprons in the center-left of the image and a third young black contraband squatting on the far right. Some of the soldiers wear cavalry jackets. Others in the group appear to be civilians because of their dress. Behind a field of crops is a brick house. Number "102" scratched in the negative. A nearly identical image except with the young black boy squatting in the first row can be seen in .0121.
See GLC 5111.01.0121.

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