Bannister was the only major African American artist of the late nineteenth century who developed his talents without European exposure; and he was well known in the artistic community of Providence and admired within the wider East Coast art world. After his death, Bannister was largely forgotten by art history for almost a century, principally due to racial prejudice. Still, he and his paintings are an indelible part of a refigured relationship between African American culture and the landscapes of Reconstruction-era America.