George Henry Thomas

In the Mexican American War, West Point graduate George Henry Thomas served with distinction at the battles of Monterrey and Buena Vista. A southern-born officer who later chose to remain with the Union army during the Civil War, Thomas would be hailed as “the rock of Chickamauga” for tenaciously holding his ground on that Georgia battlefield in September 1863.

This daguerreotype’s embossed velvet case pad documents the expansion of Brady’s photography business in 1853. It lists the address of his original gallery at 205 Broadway, but also includes that of his new, larger gallery, which opened at 359 Broadway in March of that year.