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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 [Large portrait of General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC05111.01.0470 Author/Creator: Unknown Place Written: s.l. Type: Photograph Date: circa 1862 Pagination: 1 albumen : b&w ; 45.3 x 35.6 cm. Order a Copy

Vignette bust portrait of Union General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks. Uniform has been heavily retouched. Prior to his service in the Union Army, Banks served as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1856 to 1857 and Governor of Massachusetts from 1858 to 1861. President Abraham Lincoln appointed him as a major general of volunteers in January 1861. Banks suffered a poor reputation as a field commander, having faced heavy losses at the seige of Port Hudson (1863) and during the Red River campaign (1864). His biggest contribution to the Union effort was in supplying morale and recruits to the Federal cause.

Banks, Nathaniel Prentiss, 1816-1894

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