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.

Petersburg Gas Works and rubble of smokestack. [April 1865 ca.]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC05111.01.0397 Author/Creator: Place Written: Petersburg, Virginia Type: Photograph Date: 1865/04 ca. Pagination: 1 photograph 10.8 x 12.7 cm Order a Copy

Title from inscription on verso. Image of what remains of the Gas Works building with gaping holes, caused by artillery fire, in its walls. The pile of bricks in the foreground is all that remains of the once-famous 80-foot-tall somkestack. Federal artillery used it for target practice until it finally collapsed. Numeric notation: "1021 XI - IV."

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