Lincoln’s Legacy: Historic Americana from the Life of Abraham Lincoln

Albumen print on larger cardstock mount; 8 x 6 in. (203 x 152 mm). Inscribed in ink at lower left mount: "Yours truly / A. Lincoln". Hesler's rare blindstamp at center mount below image ("113 Lake St., Chicago"). Minor spotting to image and mount; unexamined out of the frame, 14 1/2 x 12 in. (368 x 305 mm).

This photograph (O-28 in Hamilton and Ostendorf's Lincoln in Photographs) reflects one of four different poses captured by Hesler in his sitting with Lincoln on 3 June 1860. Tasked with producing some updated campaign portraits, Hesler traveled to Springfield to accommodate Lincoln's busy schedule. "Hesler came, and set up his camera near a large window in the old Capitol Building. It was a quiet Sunday and Hesler worked undisturbed with Lincoln. He took these four splendid poses, two of which (O-26 and O-27) sold about 10,000 copies!" (Hamilton and Ostendorf, pp. 48-49). "This and No. 27 did not have the wide distribution of Nos. 25 and 26, and are little known except to collectors. The negative is said to have been lost in the Chicago Fire of 1871." (Meserve & Sandburg 28)

Provenance:

Louise Taper, Beverly Hills, California

Exhibition:

The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America, at the Huntington Library, October 1993-August 1994

Abraham Lincoln: A Personal Journey at the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum