Rand, Arnold A. (Arnold Augustus), 1837-1917

Nathaniel P. Banks was a congressman, governor of Massachusetts, and general in the Federal Army during the Civil War. Banks commanded the Department of the Gulf and participated in battles including Front Royal, Winchester, Cedar Mountain, Port Hudson, and Baton Rouge. He married Mary Theodosia Palmer, a former factory employee, on April 11, 1847, at Providence, R.I., after a lengthy courtship.

The War of the Rebellion albums comprise the page of 15 disassembled photograph albums containing 2,629 images pertaining to the American Civil War. Photographers represented include Mathew B. Brady and Alexander Gardner. The albums were assembled by Arnold A. Rand, a colonel in the 4th Massachusetts Cavalry of the Union Army working with Albert Ordway, Colonel and Brigadier General of the Volunteers, 24th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. In 1868, Ordway was elected into the Commandery of Massachusetts (Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, commonly known as MOLLUS). In 1884, Rand and Rodway offered a collection of 4,000 negatives of Civil War views, over half of which were taken by Alexander Gardner while he was attached to the Army of the Potomac, to the government, and to identify and label it to restore its full value. In or about 1885 Ordway and Rand purchased a collection of over 7,000 negatives from Anthony and Company, a firm which had hired photographers to cover a myriad of locations, events, and subjects for commercial distribution and purchased images from photographers acting on their own. After the purchase of the material from Anthony & Co., Ordway and Rand contacted other MOLLUS commanderies, veterans, widows, and collectors offering to exchange prints for others not in their collections. The result of their efforts is a 40,000 image collection now stored at the United States Army Military Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

The War of the Rebellion Albums held by the Western Reserve Historical Society constitute one of the largest sets held outside of the of the Military History Institute. William Pendleton Palmer (President of the Western Reserve Historical Society from 1913-1927) acquired the albums as part of a vast body of Civil War images, manuscripts, and publications that he assembled as a private collector. Those materials were donated to WRHS and form the core of its nationally significant holdings on the American Civil War.