The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum has created a new collection of high-resolution Lincoln photographs. The “Picturing Lincoln” project is starting with 1,001 images, but several thousand more will be added in the coming months.
There are plenty of concrete reasons to share these pictures. They will assist scholars around the world, reduce wear and tear on the original photos, and cut our staff time spent retrieving photos. But the fundamental reason is that these photos belong to the world, just as Lincoln’s legacy does. Thanks to the internet (and a $100,000 grant from the Illinois State Library), we now have the ability to let everyone, everywhere study these images and ponder what they tell us about America’s greatest president and his place in history.
Here’s a sampling of what can be found at www.PresidentLincoln.Illinois.gov/PicturingLincoln.
Lincoln’s Changing Face
Abraham Lincoln’s face changed from photo to photo – because of age, the addition of a beard, fatigue, mood, the photographer’s style. With more than 120 portraits, the “Picturing Lincoln” collection offers plenty of opportunities to compare his many looks and wonder what he was going through at the time. (Just to be clear, that 120 figure includes repeats and small variations, not 120 unique poses.)
Lincoln around the time he was elected to Congress and then 10 years later, when he failed in his race for the U.S. Senate.
The final year of his life seemed to take an incredible toll on President Lincoln. Photos from shortly before his assassination show a man worn down by his responsibilities.
Lincoln’s Death
Like so many calamities, Lincoln’s death fascinates us. Could the assassination have been avoided if this hadn’t happened or that had been different? What possessed Booth, a man who could have fought for the Confederacy but didn’t, to suddenly choose violence? How did Americans, including Lincoln’s own family, cope with this unprecedented national tragedy? “Picturing Lincoln” offers a lot to chew on, from artist’s illustrations to photos of the conspirators to the only surviving image of Lincoln lying in state.
An artist’s conception of the scene of Lincoln’s death. This many people were never in the tiny room at any one time.
Photos of mourners gathered in New York City and at Lincoln’s Home in Springfield.
Lincoln’s remains being moved during a construction project at the Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site.
Lincoln’s Family
The images posted to “Picturing Lincoln” so far offer an unprecedented look at the family that Abraham Lincoln never saw: his son Robert as an influential national figure, his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren. Lincoln grew up in a log cabin, and Robert in a middle-class home. But the Lincolns after that grew up in beautiful homes in Chicago, London, and Washington, or on grand estates. They played with toy boats and pony carts instead of chopping firewood. It’s an eye-opening coda to the Lincoln story.
Robert Lincoln looking dapper in a tinted photo from about 1878. A few years later, he would be appointed U.S. secretary of war.
Two of Lincoln’s great-grandchildren, along with two friends, playing at Robert Lincoln’s Hildene estate.
On the left is Tad Lincoln in Washington, DC. On the right is Tad’s great-nephew, Isham Lincoln, in Iowa. Was the second photographer re-creating the image of Tad or are the similar poses just a coincidence?
Lincoln’s free-spirited great-granddaughter Mary “Peggy” Beckwith.
Farewell
A sketch of the interior of Lincoln’s Tomb.
The chair where Abraham Lincoln sat (as did Ulysses Grant and Stephen Douglas) when posing for sculptor Leonard Volk.