The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library has acquired a rare photograph of the 29th United States Colored Troop member Nathan Hughes. Nathan Hughes was born in to inslavement but escaped to Illinois where he became a soldier in the states only African American regiment during the Civil War.
“The photograph of Hughes and his second wife, Jane, was taken around the turn of the century in Yorkville, where Hughes settled after the war. The approximately 5-by-7-inch photograph of Nathan Hughes, who is not in uniform, but is wearing a Grand Army of the Republic medal, is the first original image of a 29th USCT member the library owns”.
“Kathryn Harris, Library service director, said a friend of the library contacted her and said that an image of Hughes was available from a dealer in Georgia. Harris contacted ALPLM executive director Eileen Mackevich, and donors — the Marks and Salchi families of Chicago — were found to purchase the image for the Library”.
“The only thing that could be better was if he was a colored soldier from the 29th in uniform,” Harris said.
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