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Maker(s):Gardner, Alexander
Culture:American (1821-1882)
Title:Abraham Lincoln
Date Made:1863, printed ca. 1900 by M.P. Rice
Type:Photograph
Materials:matte collodion print
Place Made:North America; United States; District of Columbia: Washington
Measurements:Mount: 14 3/4 in x 11 13/16 in; 37.5 cm x 30 cm; Sheet: 13 7/8 in x 11 in; 35.2 cm x 27.9 cm; Image: 12 7/8 in x 9 15/16 in; 32.7 cm x 25.2 cm
Accession Number:  AC 1947.135
Credit Line:Gift of Mr. Grosvenor H. Backus, Class of 1894
Museum Collection:  Mead Art Museum at Amherst College
1947-135.jpg

Description:
Head and shoulders, full face, hair unkempt with streaks of grey; beard, bushy eyebrows; face deeply lined and expressive; wears a black coat, vest, and tie; white shirt and wing collar.
AD))): This is a sepia-toned photograph portrait of Abraham Lincoln. He stares directly into the camera, and his face is more in focus while his ears, shoulders, and some of his hair blur more into the background. He sports a trimmed beard but a clean-shaven upper lip. He wears a diamond-point black bowtie and a simple black 19th-century suit and vest, along with a white collared shirt. (Naomi Meyer ''27)

Label Text:
Scholars and enthusiasts alike believe this portrait of Abraham Lincoln, taken on November 8, 1863, eleven days before his famed Gettysburg Address, to be the best photograph of him ever taken. Lincoln’s character was notoriously difficult to capture in pictures, but Alexander Gardner’s close-up portrait, quite innovative in contrast to the typical full-length portrait style, comes closest to preserving the expressive contours of Lincoln’s face and his penetrating gaze.

Lincoln was the first frequently photographed president; he even credited a photograph (taken at Mathew Brady’s New York studio on February 27, 1860) with securing his election to the presidency. Gardner took thirty-seven photographs of Lincoln, more than double the number by any other photographer.

Moses P. Rice, possibly one of Gardner’s former assistants, copyrighted this portrait in the late nineteenth century, along with other photographs by Gardner. For one person to do this with another’s work was not an unusual practice at that time.
MD, 2011

Tags:
portraits; historical figures

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1947.135

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.

2 Related Media Items


Audio Description_EN (1947.135).mp3
Audio Description_EN (1947.135).mp3
1947-135.jpg
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