Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln is revered today as one of the greatest presidents of the United States, remembered for leading the country through the Civil War, his successful efforts to end slavery, and his tragic assassination in April 1865. This image of Lincoln was probably made as a copy after a photographic portrait of the president taken by Christopher S. German in Springfield, Illinois, on January 13, 1861.

The tintype process, invented in 1856, was less expensive and quicker than earlier photographic methods and therefore was used to create images that could be distributed to a larger audience. For Lincoln’s presidential bid in 1860, hundreds of copy tintypes were made of Matthew Brady’s portrait of the candidate for campaign ribbons. The mount of this tintype suggests that it had been placed in an album.