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Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm81011734
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of Nathaniel Prentiss Banks, United States representative, governor of Massachusetts, and army officer, were purchased by the Library in 1964. Additional items were purchased, 1964-1975, and other material was given by Elizabeth D. Castner in 1982.
The Banks Papers were processed in 1981 and expanded and revised in 1985. Additional revisions were made to the finding aid in 2007 and 2009.
Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. Some maps have been transferred to the Geography and Maps Division. Photographs have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the Nathaniel Prentiss Banks Papers.
Additional Banks material is located in the American Antiquarian Society Library in Worcester, Massachusetts, the Duke University Library, the Illinois State Historical Library, and the Louisiana State University Library.
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Nathaniel Prentiss Banks is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
The papers of Nathaniel Prentiss Banks are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Nathaniel Prentiss Banks Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Nathaniel Prentiss Banks (1816-1894) span the years 1829-1911, with the bulk of the material from 1860 to 1880. The collection is organized in nine series: Diaries and Notebooks, Family Correspondence, General Correspondence, Letterbooks, Military Papers, Speeches and Writings, Miscellany, Scrapbooks, and Oversize.
The Diaries and Notebooks contain daily appointments, memoranda, quotations from readings, records of expenditures, and miscellaneous lists. The volumes from the Civil War period include lists of officers and supplies as well as notes concerning defense strategies and other military matters.
The Family Correspondence series consists chiefly of letters between Banks and his wife, Mary Theodosia Palmer Banks. Many of Mary Banks’s postwar letters describe her travels abroad, especially in France, Italy, and Switzerland. Nathaniel Banks's letters contain comments on Civil War battles, his impressions of military and political personalities, and his views on matters relating to state and national politics.
The General Correspondence represents the breadth and scope of Nathaniel Banks's political and military activities. There is little correspondence documenting his earliest political activities while serving in the Massachusetts legislature. However, his early years, 1853-1857, in the United States Congress are well covered. In 1856 Banks was elected speaker of the House of Representatives; correspondence in that and the following years includes items concerning the issues of the Kansas territorial question and items concerning the assault on Charles Sumner in May 1856. There is much correspondence related to the establishment of the Republican Party in 1856 in the letters of S. M. Allen, John Bigelow, George S. Boutwell, Horace H. Day, John C. Frémont, George Law, and most notably, Isaac Sherman. Correspondence for 1857-1860 chiefly concerns state business while Banks was governor of Massachusetts. The letters of Samuel Bowles and Anson Burlingame relate developments of the presidential nomination of 1860 in which Banks was a candidate for the Republican nomination.
The bulk of the General Correspondence covers the period 1861-1865 and relates to Banks's activities as major general of Volunteers in Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia and later the Department of the Gulf. Also included in the early Civil War correspondence is the official correspondence of Major General Robert Patterson, who had preceded Banks in command of the Shenandoah Valley. Banks's Civil War correspondence concerns all phases of military operations and includes material related to Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign, the Battle of Cedar Mountain, military operations at Port Hudson, and the Red River Campaign. Correspondence of 1863-1865 also relates to Banks's involvement with the organization of a free-state government in Louisiana and his efforts to assist Abraham Lincoln in the formulation of national policies on reconstruction issues in the Southern states. Correspondents include Generals Ulysses S. Grant, H. W. Halleck, George B. McClellan, Irvin McDowell, Robert Patterson, John Pope, Fitz-John Porter, Winfield Scott, William T. Sherman, James Shields, and Franz Sigel, and Admirals David G. Farragut and David D. Porter.
The post-Civil War correspondence is mainly concerned with diplomatic issues while Banks served as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives and includes matters relating to the Alaska purchase, the proposed annexation of Santo Domingo and St. Thomas, relations with Spain and Cuba, the Fenian uprising, and the early plans for the construction of an isthmian canal. Other correspondents include Francis W. Bird, James G. Blaine, Anson Burlingame, Benjamin F. Butler, John Murray Forbes, John Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Carl Schurz, William H. Seward, John Sherman, Edwin McMasters Stanton, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Gideon Welles.
The Military Papers concern military matters while Banks served in the Civil War and mainly include personnel lists and reports, financial records, sketches, maps, and material related to the 1864 free-state elections in Louisiana. The Speeches and Writings series consists of published and handwritten copies of speeches and lectures, and legislative bills which he introduced. These are followed by a large collection of miscellaneous research notes, citations, and other reference materials used in his speeches. The Miscellany series contains printed matter and newspaper clippings, with many items annotated in Banks's hand. Included in the printed matter are speeches and writings by persons other than Banks. Other material in the Miscellany consists of personal financial records, biographical items notes and memoranda, cards, invitations, programs, and miscellaneous office records and other papers relating to Banks's service as United States marshal for the Boston District, 1879-1888.
The Scrapbook series consists of bound volumes containing newspaper clippings, biographical information, printed matter, copies of speeches and writings by Banks and others, poems, and maps, often with annotations in Banks's hand.
A bound volume of an incomplete index to the General Correspondence is available in the Manuscript Division Reading Room.
This collection is arranged in nine series:
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm81011734
Diaries and notebooks containing daily appointments, memoranda, personal expense accounts, and excerpts from the writings of others.
Arranged chronologically.
Letters sent and received by family members.
Arranged alphabetically by name of family member and therein chronologically.
Letters sent and received including letterpress, carbon and hand copies, telegrams, postcards, with miscellaneous enclosures.
Arranged chronologically. An incomplete name index is available in the Manuscript Division Reading Room.
Letterpress and stenographic shorthand letterbooks of outgoing correspondence.
Arranged chronologically.
Personnel reports, financial papers, general orders, sketches, maps, and other related material.
Arranged alphabetically by subject and therein chronologically.
Published copies and drafts of lectures and speeches, and congressional legislation introduced by Banks, accompanied by notes, outlines, and related research material.
Arranged chronologically.
Newspaper clippings, printed matter, miscellaneous notes, memoranda, personal records, cards, and invitations.
Arranged alphabetically by subject or type of material and therein chronologically.
Bound volumes of newspaper clippings, printed matter, copies of speeches, poems, maps, excerpts from the writings of others.
Volumes chiefly arranged chronologically, with the oversize volumes at end.
Oversize scrapbooks.
Arranged and described according to the series and containers from which they were removed.