Eleanor C. Bannister (1858-1939)
Oil on canvas, 1902
Gift of the Partnership for New York City, Inc.
NYSM 2003.41.111

Hatch established the banking firm of W. T. Hatch and Sons in 1863. At the close of the Civil War he was one of a number of philanthropic incorporators of the Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company, popularly known as the Freedman’s Bank, which was founded in March, 1865, “on behalf of persons heretofore held in slavery in the United States.” Before its closure in 1874, the bank had thirty-seven offices in seventeen states.

Eleanor Cunningham Bannister was a portrait painter based in Brooklyn, NY. Hatch’s posthumous portrait was probably done from a photograph or an existing portrait.