LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY MEMORIAL the Class of 1901 founded by HARLAN HOYT HORNER and HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER LINCOLN IN PORTRAITURE Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://archive.org/details/lincolninportraiOOwils J^% O H. ■Sv-ty- LINCOLN IN PORTRAITURE By RUFUS ROCKWELL WILSON Author of Lincoln in Caricature and What Lincoln Read SIXTY-TWO PORTRAITS New York: THE PRESS OF THE PIONEERS, INC i 93 5 copyright 1935 The Press of the Pioneers, Inc. new york, n. y. ^73.7JLk3 LtNco^ To JUSTICE OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES WHO IN HIS YOUTH FOUGHT TO PRESERVE THE UNION AND WHOSE FATHER'S " THE LAST LEAF " WAS ONE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S FAVORITE POEMS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS During labors that have extended over a long period of years I have received generous and frequently un- expected aid from many sources, but I should be lack- ing in the quality of gratitude if I did not make specific acknowledgment of the help I have had from Mr. Fred- erick H. Meserve and Mr. Harry MacNeill Bland of New York City and from Dr. Louis A. Warren of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Had not the full and accurate knowl- edge these gentlemen possessed of all phases of an interesting but often difficult subject been constantly at my command, the present record would lack the reasonable measure of accuracy and completeness right- fully demanded by the student. I desire also to thank Mr. Louis A. Holman of Boston for the loan of and permission to reproduce as a frontispiece to the present volume a most interesting reminder of a great artist's work and methods — a photograph touched up and the tones he desired ar- ranged by the late Timothy Cole preliminary to its transfer to the block on which he engraved his last and finest portrait of Lincoln. R.R.W. Page 9 LIST OF PORTRAITS Frontispiece — Photograph touched up and the tones he desired, arranged by Timothy Cole preliminary to its transfer to the block on which that eminent artist engraved his last portrait of Lincoln. Reproduced by permission of the owner, Louis A. Holman of Boston. Number I . Wood engraving by Thomas Johnson of daguerreo- type by M. H. Shepard taken at Springfield in 1846. Meserve No. 1 19 Number II. Ambrotype taken for George Schneider by an unknown photographer at Chicago in 1874. Now owned by the Chicago Historical Society . . . 25 Number III. Full length photograph by an unknown artist now in the Library of Congress at Washington ... 29 Number IV. Ambrotype by Alexander Hesler taken at Chi- cago in February, 1857. Meserve No. 6 . . . .33 Number V. Ambrotype by A. M. Byers taken at Beardstown, Illinois, May 7, 1858. Meserve No. 7 39 Number VI. Photograph probably by Butler or German taken at Springfield in September, 1858. Meserve No. 9. 43 Number VII. Ambrotype by Calvin Jackson taken at Pitts- field, Illinois, on October 1, 1858. Meserve No. 12 . .47 Number VIII. Daguerreotype by Amon J.T.Joslin taken at Danville, Illinois, probably in May, 1859. Meserve No. 2 51 Number IX. Wood engraving by Gustav Kruell of photo- graph by S. M. Fassett taken at Chicago in October, 1859. Meserve No. 8 55 Number X. Ambrotype by Matthew B. Brady taken at New York City on February 27, i860. Meserve Nos. 19 and 20 59 Page 11 Number XL Life mask by Leonard Wells Volk made at Chicago in April, i860. Engraved by Thomas Johnson . 69 Number XII. Wood engraving by Timothy Cole of an am- brotype by William Church taken at Springfield, May 20, i860. Meserve No. 22 75 Number XIII. Photograph taken at Springfield, May 24, i860. Photographer unknown, but probably Pres. Butler 79 Number XIV. Photograph by Alexander Hesler taken at Springfield, June 8, i860. Meserve No. 26 .... 83 Number XV. Lithographic reproduction of a crayon portrait made by Charles A. Barry at Springfield, in June, i860 . 87 Number XVI. Portrait of Lincoln by Thomas Hicks painted at Springfield in June, i860 93 Number XVII. Crayon portrait of Lincoln painted by Thomas M. J. Johnston at Springfield, in July, i860. . 101 Number XVIII. Mezzotint by John Sartain of miniature of Lincoln by John Henry Brown painted at Springfield in August, i860 107 Number XIX. Ambrotype taken at Springfield on August 13, i860, probably by Pres. Butler. Meserve No. 29 . 115 Number XX. Portrait of Lincoln painted by Allan Jasper Conant at Springfield in September, i860. Now in the Phillipse Manor House at Yonkers, New York . . .119 Number XXI. Portrait of Lincoln painted by George Fred- erick Wright at Springfield, in September, i860. Now owned by the University of Chicago 1 29 Number XXII. Photograph by Samuel G. Alschuler taken at Chicago between November 21 and November 28, i860. Meserve No. 38 1 33 Number XXIII. Portrait of Lincoln painted by Jesse At- wood at Springfield in November, i860 Now owned by J. W. Young of Chicago 141 Number XXIV. Bust of Lincoln executed by Thomas D. Jones at Springfield in January, 1861. Now in the gal- leries of the New York Historical Society . . . 145 Page 12 Number XXV. Photograph taken at Springfield by C. S. German, probably on January 13 or 20, 1861. Meserve No. 35 153 Number XXVI. Etching by Thomas Johnson of a photo- graph taken at Springfield by C. S. German in January or February, 1861. Meserve No. 36 157 Number XXVII. Sketch of Lincoln made by George P. A. Healy in Washington in May, 1861. Now in the Lincoln Collection of Harry MacNeill Bland 161 Number XXVIII. Portrait of Lincoln painted by George Henry Story in 191 6 from sketches made by the artist in Washington, in June, 1861. Now owned by Albert H. Wiggin of New York 165 Number XXIX. Photograph, name of photographer un- known, taken in Washington prior to October 3, 1861. Meserve No. 42 171 Number XXX. Bust of Lincoln by Sarah Fisher Ames exe- cuted at Washington in 1862. Now in the Lincoln col- lection of Harry MacNeill Bland 177 Number XXXI. Photograph of Alexander Gardner taken at Washington on January 24, 1863. Meserve No. 49 . .181 Number XXXII. Portrait of Lincoln by James Read Lamb- din painted at Washington, in March, 1863. Now owned by Oliver R. Barrett of Chicago 185 Number XXXIII. Engraving by John Sartain of portrait of Lincoln by Dalton Edward Marchant painted at Washington in 1863. Now in the Union League Club in Philadelphia 189 Number XXXIV. Sketch of Lincoln wearing a shawl. Not from life and artist unknown 193 Number XXXV. Portrait of Lincoln taken by Alexander and James Gardner at Washington on November 24, 1863. Meserve No. 59. . . . . . . . -199 Number XXXVI. Photograph of Lincoln taken by Matthew B. Brady at Washington on February 9, 1864. Meserve No. 85 205 Page 13 Number XXXVII. Photograph of Lincoln and his son Tad taken by Matthew B. Brady at Washington late in 1863 or early in 1864. Meserve No. 39 211 Number XXXVIII. Photograph of Lincoln taken by Thomas Walker, photographer to the Treasury Department, at Washington in May, 1864. Meserve No. 88 . . .215 Number XXXIX. Portrait of Lincoln painted from life by Samuel B. Waugh in 1864. Now owned by Wharton Sinkler of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania 221 Number XL. Portrait of Lincoln by William Cogswell now in the White House. Painted in Chicago in 1864 from first-hand sketches made by the artist when visiting Washington . . . 225 Number XLI. Portrait of Lincoln believed to have been painted by Thomas Buchanan Read at Washington in 1864. Now owned by C. H. Running of Columbus, Ohio 229 Number XLI I. Bust of Lincoln by Thomas D. Jones executed at Washington in 1864. Now owned by William Ran- dolph Hearst 233 Number XLI 1 1 . Portrait of Lincoln painted from life by Fran- cis Bicknell Carpenter at Washington in 1864. Now owned by the Union League Club of New York . .237 Number XLIV. Full length portrait of Lincoln painted by Albian H. Bicknell in 1864. Now in the State House at Boston 243 Number XLV. Portrait of Lincoln by George Frederick Wright painted at Washington in 1864. Now owned by the estate of the late Percy A. Rockefeller .... 247 Number XLV I. Full length portrait of Lincoln by William F. K. Travers begun in Washington in the fall of 1864 and completed the following spring at Frankfort-on- Main. Now owned by the estate of the late Percy A Rockefeller M3 Number XLVll. Photograph of Lincoln taken by Matthew B. Brady at Washington late in 1864 or early in 1865. Meserve No. 76 2 57 Page 14 Number XLVIII. Drawing by Kenyon Cox of original of life mask of Lincoln made by Clark Mills in February, 1865. Now in the Lincoln Museum at Washington . . .261 Number XLIX. Photograph of Lincoln taken by Henry F. Warren in Washington on March 6, 1865. Meserve No. 93 265 Number L. Portrait of Lincoln painted from life by William Matthews at Washington late in 1864. Now owned by Oliver R. Barrett of Chicago 269 Number LI. Portrait of Lincoln painted from life by George Victor Cooper at Washington early in 1865. Now owned by A. E. Rueff of Brooklyn ....... 273 Number LI I. Portrait of Lincoln by Charles Wesley Jar vis painted at Washington early in 1865. Now in the Lincoln collection of Harry MacNeill Bland 277 Number LI 1 1 . Lithograph of a portrait of Lincoln by Matthew Wilson painted at Washington in April, 1865 . . .281 Number LI V. Portrait of Lincoln by Peter Baumgras painted at Washington in 1865. Now owned by Brown University 285 Number LV. Last photograph of Lincoln taken by Alexander Gardner at Washington on Palm Sunday, April 9, 1865. Meserve No. 100 289 Number LVI. Portrait of Lincoln by William Morris Hunt painted in 1866. Now owned by John G. Winant, former governor of New Hampshire 293 Number LVI I. Portrait of Lincoln painted by George P. A. Healy in 1866 or 1867. Now in the Newberry Library in Chicago 297 Number LVI 1 1. Portrait of Lincoln by an unknown artist probably painted at Springfield in the summer of i860. Now owned by Mrs. Mary E. Trumbull of Chicago . .303 Number LIX. Portrait of Lincoln by an unknown artist. Now owned by William H. Townsend of Lexington, Kentucky 307 Number LX. Portrait of Lincoln seated. Date and name of painter unknown. Now in the Brooklyn Museum . .311 Number LXI. Portrait of Lincoln by an unknown artist. Now in the Renaissance Galleries, Philadelphia . .315 Page 15 FOREWORD The written or otherwise recorded recollections of men and women who knew Abraham Lincoln in vary- ing degrees of intimacy nearly all stress the fact that the manner in which his face instantly and subtly re- flected his contradictory and quick changing moods never failed to test the skill and aptitude alike of photo- grapher, sculptor and painter. "With an individuality the most strongly marked,' ' writes one close observer, who had unusual opportunities to study him both in times of stress and of welcome relaxation from the tasks of the hour, "such was the flexibility of his feat- ures, or of the muscles governing them, that he was rarely twice alike. Hence the uneven and too often disappointing results of attempts to portray a face that would have intrigued and perhaps baffled Rembrant or Velasquez. 1 ' Moreover, it is one of the minor ironies of history that while a goodly number of painters and sculptors of rank and quality were at work within easy distance of Washington during the years when the fame of Lincoln was in the making, not one of them, with per- haps a single exception, sought or made opportunity to paint or model him from life. Nevertheless, a num- ber of artists of varying skill and capacity made life masks or executed first-hand busts and portraits of him, and there are also extant a great number of photO- Page 17 graphs of him taken at fateful periods of his great career. Three score of these photographs, masks, busts and portraits are here reproduced with such measure of comment and description as each item seems to demand. From the daguerreotype taken at Springfield in 1846, the earliest likeness of Lincoln that has been spared us, down to the photograph for which he sat at Washington on Palm Sunday in 1865, a few days before his death, the plates assembled in this volume, ranging from the hopeful confidence of their subject's early manhood to the tempered and sober self-mastery of his last days, clearly reflect the mental and spiritual development through eventful years of the greatest man of his period and country. One rises from a study of them with new and reverent knowledge of the life and growth which have made Abraham Lincoln's mem- ory a part of the proud and precious heritage of every American. Page 18 Number I. WOOD ENGRAVING BY THOMAS JOHNSON OF A DA- GUERREOTYPE BY N. H. SHEPARD TAKEN AT SPRINGFIELD IN 1846. Meserve No. i. Number I. WOOD ENGRAVING BY THOMAS JOHNSON OF A DAGUERREOTYPE BY N. H. SHEPARD TAKEN AT SPRINGFIELD IN 1846. Meserve No. i . This is the earliest known photograph of Abraham Lincoln, and his son Robert Lincoln, born in 1843, wrote in old age that he recalled it "as being in his father's house" along with one of his mother, "as far back as he could remember anything there." We know now what perhaps Robert Lincoln never knew that this daguerreotype was taken in 1846 by N. H. Shepard, who for a time practised his art in Springfield. In No- vember, 1903, Gibson W. Harris contributed a remin- iscent article to the Woman's Home Companion in which he states that he settled in Springfield in the autumn of 1845 and without delay contacted Lincoln by doing some work in his office. Soon after his arrival Harris writes: "I made the acquaintance of a young man from Syracuse, New York, named N. H. Shepard, a daguerreotypist who was about opening a gallery in Springfield. Photographs were as yet unknown, and daguerreotyping was considered, as it actually was, a marvelous advance in the art of portraiture. Together we two, Shepard and I, looked up a boarding house where we became room-mates, remaining such through- out my stay in Springfield. He was among the very first in his line to come as far west as Illinois, and we were warm friends to the end. " In one of Miss Tarbell's Lincoln articles, published a few years ago in a current magazine, I noticed a por- trait of Lincoln with the statement annexed that it was Page 21 from a daguerreotype, but giving the reader to under- stand that it could not be ascertained when and by whom the likeness was taken. Later the same portrait appeared in The Century Magazine, but still unidenti- fied. I feel confident I am not mistaken in recognizing the portrait as the work of my friend Shepard, before whose camera I know Mr. Lincoln sat once or oftener. The claim repeatedly made for it of being the earliest portrait of Abraham Lincoln remains, as far as I know, an undisputed fact." Mr. Harris further states that the Shepard daguer- reotype was taken in 1846 when its subject was thirty- seven years of age. When in November, 1895, a repro- duction of it appeared for the first time in McClure's Magazine, it aroused wide and admiring comment, and prompted many letters to the editor of that journal. One of these letters was from Dr. John W. Powell, geol- ogist and author, who in his early youth had known Lincoln. Dr. Powell wrote that other pictures of Lincoln had never wholly pleased him, adding, "and I now know why. I remember Lincoln as I saw him when I was a boy; after he became a public man I saw him but a few times. This portrait is Lincoln as I knew him best : his sad, dreamy eyes, his pensive smile, his sad and delicate face, his pyramidal shoulders are the charac- teristics which I best remember ; and I can never think of him as wrinkled with care, so plainly shown in his later portraits. This is the Lincoln of Springfield, Deca- tur, Jacksonville and Bloomington. " It was in 1846, the year the Shepard daguerreotype was taken, that Henry B. Rankin, then a lad of ten, met Lincoln for the first time, and his memories written Page 22 in 191 5 in ripe old age, also bear striking testimony to its truthfulness. Lincoln was in attendance at the Me- nard County Court at Petersburg,. Illinois, and the boy Rankin, by favor of his father, then sheriff of Me- nard County, was allowed to quit school during court term and act as messenger boy when the court was in session. "My recollection of his personal appearance, as I then saw him/' writes Rankin," forms a picture quite different from that of 1854 and up to i860, as shown in photographs of the later period. At this earlier date he was in his physical prime. He had the well de- veloped muscles and the fresh color of one leading an active out-of-door life and overflowing with physical vigor and health. The angular form, the long sallow face and swarthy complexion of later years do not come back to me out of the sixty-nine years ago of boyhood memory printed there in 1846. He was at that time in personal appearance the best looking lawyer attending the Petersburg Circuit Court/' The Shepard daguerreotype came into the posses- sion of Robert Lincoln upon his mother's death and is now the property of his widow. Page 23 Number II. PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN AN ITINERANT GALLERY IN CHICAGO IN AUGUST, 1854, FOR GEORGE SCHNEIDER. Meserve No. 3 Number II. PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN AN ITIN- ERANT GALLERY IN CHICAGO IN AUGUST, 1854, FOR GEORGE SCHNEIDER. Meserve No. 3. George Schneider, long editor of the Chicago Staats Zeitung, then the most influential anti- slavery German newspaper of the West, records that he first met Mr. Lincoln in 1853 * n Springfield. "He was already a man necessary to know, " Mr. Schneider wrote in after years. The following year Mr. Lincoln was in Chicago, and his friend Isaac N. Arnold, a lead- ing lawyer and politician of that city who later was to become one of his earliest biographers, invited Mr. Schneider to dine with them. After dinner, as the three men were walking from Mr. Arnold's home to Mr. Lincoln's hotel, they halted at the gallery of an itin- erant photographer, and Mr. Lincoln had the picture here reproduced, taken for Mr. Schneider with whom it remained a treasured possession until his death. The paper Mr. Lincoln holds in his hands is the Chicago Press and Tribune, which soon was to become an unfaltering champion of his political fortunes. The Schneider photograph is a speaking likeness of Lincoln as his friends and intimates knew him on the eve of the struggle that was to make him the leader of the soon-to-be- formed Republican party, first in Illinois and later in the nation. In February, 1926, the daughters of Schneider — Mrs. Robert Berger and Mrs. George A. Weiss — presented it to the Chicago Historical Society. Lincoln appointed Schneider consul at Elsinore, Den- mark, and later he was for a number of years president of the National Bank of Illinois in Chicago. Page 27 Number III. FULL LENGTH PHOTOGRAPH NOW IN LIBRARY OF CONGRESS AT WASH- INGTON. DATE AND MAKER UNKNOWN. Number III. FULL LENGTH PHOTOGRAPH NOW IN THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS AT WASH- INGTON. DATE AND MAKER UNKNOWN. This photograph of rare interest to the Lincoln student because of the dignity and awareness re- vealed in it has no history, but there is little doubt that it was taken in Springfield in the middle or late fifties. It has been pronounced by one of his biographers "the earliest known camera record of Lincoln," but this, of course, is a mistake. On May 19, i860, as re- corded in another place, Lincoln, at the request of Leonard W. Volk, the sculptor, posed for three full- length negatives. The after history of these negatives is unknown, but the photograph now in the Library of Congress may be a print from one of them. Page 3 1 Number IV. AMBROTYPE BY ALEXANDER HESLER TAKEN AT CHICAGO IN FEBRUARY, 1857. Meserve No. 6. Number IV. AMBROTYPE BY ALEXANDER HES- LER TAKEN AT CHICAGO IN FEBRUARY, 1857. Meserve No. 6. On his birthday in 1857 Lincoln wrote to Steele and Summers, attorneys of Paris, Illinois, that he was "going to Chicago on the 21st inst. " It was during this stay in Chicago that he gave the first of several sittings to Alexander Hesler, then the leading photo- grapher of that city. In the spring of 1895 a Baltimore publisher on a quest for portraits of Lincoln, as set forth by the New York Sun in one of its issues for March, 1899, found Hesler, then a very old man, in a studio on Ohio Street, Chicago, occupied in an en- deavor to reintroduce daguerreotypes. " In 1857, " Hes- ler told his visitor. " I was called upon by a member of the Chicago bar, named Ballingdale, who stated that Lincoln was in the city and that many of his profes- sional brothers desired his photograph and requested me to make a negative of Lincoln and depend upon the sale of the photograph for my remuneration. I reluct- antly consented to do so, having at that time, I believe, never heard of Lincoln. Shortly thereafter, Lincoln and his friend came into my studio. Lincoln had evidently just left a barber's chair, for his hair was plastered flat over his forehead and brushed up at the side. While I was focusing my camera I saw Lincoln run his hand through his hair and dishevel it. He then turned to his friend and remarked: 'The boys down in Sangamon would never know me in this way.' The photo was made, but the sale was limited for two or three years. After Lincoln was nominated for the Presidency it was Page 35 used for the first campaign badges, but the Republican National Committee thought Lincoln's unkempt ap- pearance contrasted too unfavorably with that of Douglas and desired to have a neater appearing por- trait. I immediately wrote to Lincoln asking him to come to Chicago for that purpose. He replied that he had promised his friends to remain in Springfield until after the election, but stated that if I would come down there he would give me every opportunity to photo- graph him. I went to Springfield and made the nega- tive that was afterward used for the campaign badges." Joseph Medill of the Chicago Tribune, then and later a close friend of Lincoln, recalled in old age that he had been with him when he visited Hester's studio, and gave a different cause for the tousled appearance of Lincoln's hair. He declared that the photographer insisted on smoothing down Lincoln's hair, but his sitter was not pleased with the result and before the photograph was taken ran his fingers through it. Per- haps an aging man's memory played Medill false on this particular occasion, for Hesler shortly before his death in 1 896, declared that the famous editor was not present when Lincoln gave him his first sitting. Be this as it may, the photograph resulting from it had wide distribution in the opening days of the campaign of i860 and Lincoln once related with a laugh how he had heard a boy on the street crying out: "Picture of Abraham Lincoln — twenty-five cents. He will look better when he gets his hair cut." One student of the subject has aptly described this first Hesler photograph as "the awakened Lincoln." When it was taken he had already scored some of his Page 36 outstanding successes as a lawyer and by four masterly utterances — the anti-Nebraska speech at Springfield the Missouri Compromise speech at Peoria, the famous Lost Speech at Bloomington, and the Dred Scott speech — had made himself the leader in Illinois of the forces opposed to the extension of slavery. It was a Lincoln who now faced great events and knew himself equal to them who has been preserved for us by Hes- ler's camera. The original negative was burned in the Chicago fire. The present reproduction is from a print in the collection of Herbert W. Fay, custodian of the Lincoln tomb at Springfield. Page 37 Number V. AMBROTYPE BY A. M. BYERS TAKEN AT BEARDSTOWN, ILLINOIS, MAY 7, 1858. Meserve No. 7. Number V. AMBROTYPE BY A.M. BYERS TAKEN AT BEARD STOWN, ILLINOIS, MAY 7, 1858. Me serve No. 7. This picture was taken on the day on which Lincoln by adroit use of an almanac cleared Duff Arm- strong, son of his old friend Jack Armstrong, of the charge of murder. Its history is set forth in a letter which in 1909, its maker, A. M. Byers, in early life a photographer at Beardstown, Illinois, and later a banker at Aledo in that state, addressed to Herbert W. Fay, then a resident of DeKalb. Byers before settling in Beardstown had been a resident of Springfield and as clerk in a store near the office of Lincoln and Hern- don on a friendly footing with the senior member of that firm. He wrote Fay that he considered his ambro- type "absolutely the truest likeness of Lincoln's face and body I ever saw. I made it with my own hands in my rooms at Beardstown I think in 1858," runs his letter. "He (Lincoln) was attending court and boarded at the National Hotel, where I did. After dinner he stepped out on the street ahead of me. I caught up with him, as I went to my rooms, and said to him: 'Mr. Lincoln I want you to go up stairs with me to my gallery and I wish to take an ambrotype of you.' He cast his eyes down at his old Holland linen suit which had no semblance of starch in it, and said : 'These clothes are dirty and unfit for a picture. ' But I insisted and he finally went with me. " A copy of one of the two ambrotypes which resulted from this sitting is now owned by Herbert W. Fay and is here reproduced. It is with good reason held in high Page 41 regard by Lincoln students. "This picture," writes Ida M. Tarbell, "has always seemed to me as near like the Lincoln of New Salem as any we have. It is more youth- ful than most of his portraits. The lines of the face are undoubtedly heavier than they were when he was in his 2o's, but the face on the whole is the face of Lincoln of New Salem/' Page 42 Number VI. PHOTOGRAPH PROBABLY BY BUTLER OR GER- MAN TAKEN AT SPRINGFIELD IN SEPTEMBER, 1858. Me serve No. 9. Number VI. PHOTOGRAPH PROBABLY BY BUT- LER OR GERMAN TAKEN AT SPRINGFIELD IN SEPTEMBER, 1858. Meserve No. 9 The story of the first of the Lincoln photographs which followed the daguerreotypes and ambro- types of an earlier period has pleasant association with the kinfolk of the great hearted woman who had been a wholesome and helpful influence in the boyhood and youth of her stepson. It is set forth in a letter written in 1895 to Ida M. Tarbell by R. N. Chapman, of Charleston, Illinois, whose mother Mrs. Harriet Chap- man, was a granddaughter of Sarah Bush Lincoln. One of the debates between Lincoln and Douglas took place at Charleston on September 18, 1858, and Lincoln during his stay in the town was entertained by Mrs. Chapman, with whom his venerable stepmother was at the time also a guest. In his letter to Miss Tarbell, R. N. Chapman, who in 1858 was a lad in his early teens, relates that when Lincoln was about to take leave of his hostess and her grandmother, Mrs. Chap- man said to him: " 'Uncle Abe, I want a picture of you/ He replied: 'Well Harriet, when I get home I will have one taken for you, and send it to you.' Soon after, mother received from Springfield already framed the photograph she still has with a letter from Mr. Lincoln in which he said: 'This is not a very good- looking picture, but it's the best that could be pro- duced from the poor subject.' He also said that he had taken it solely for my mother." Angle's "Lincoln Day by Day — 1854-1861" re- ports Lincoln as in Springfield on Sunday, September Page 45 26, home for a brief rest from his campaign labors, and the Chapman photograph was probably taken on that day either by Butler or German. This photograph was evidently a favorite with its subject for when, in July, i860, Thomas M. Johnston went from Boston to Spring- field to paint a portrait of Lincoln, he was given an ambrotype copy of it to aid him in his task. Page 46 •f «*«-f Numfor VII. AMBROTYPE BY CALVIN JACKSON TAKEN ATPITTSFIELD, ILLINOIS, ON OCT. 1, \85S. Meserve No. 12 Number VII. AMBROTYPE BY CALVIN JACKSON TAKEN AT PITTSFIELD, ILLINOIS, ON OCTO- BER 1, 1858. Meserve No. 12 On the afternoon of October 1, 1858, Lincoln spoke in the public square at Pittsfield. Four of his debates with Douglas were then a part of history, and the other three were to occur during the ensuing fort- night. Both contestants spoke almost every day through the intervals between the debates, and Lincoln's ad- dress to a great throng at Pittsfield had an important place in this order of things. When he had finished speaking he was conducted by his host, Dick H. Gilmer, a lawyer, to the gallery of Calvin Jackson, the local photographer, where he sat for two pictures. One of these is supposed to have been destroyed. The other, finished for Mr. Gilmer and now in the collection of Oliver R. Barrett of Chicago, is one of the most inter- esting portraits of Lincoln that time has spared us. It is the soul of a thinker and a mystic that finds expres- sion through the deep-set brooding eyes. In 1861, Gil- mer, Lincoln's friend and host, enlisted in the Union service, rose to the command of the Thirty-eighth Ill- inois Regiment, and fell, fatally wounded, at the battle of Chickamauga. Page 49 Number VIII. DAGUERREOTYPE BY AMON J. T. JOSLIN TAKEN AT DANVILLE, ILLINOIS, PROBABLY IN MAY, 1859. Meserve No. 2. LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS Number Will. DAGUERREOTYPE BY AMON J. T. JOSLIN TAKEN AT DANVILLE, ILLINOIS, PROBABLY IN MAY, 1859. Meserve No. 2. This interesting picture was formerly credited to an earlier period in Lincoln's career, but the type of neckwear, the way in which the hair is combed and other evidences confirm the present belief that it was taken in 1859 at Danville. That town had close associa- tion with several memorable passages in Lincoln's career. It was in Danville in 1847 that he first met Ward Hill Lamon of picturesque memory, who was soon to become one of his local partners and perhaps his most trusted friend. One of the speeches by Lincoln leading up to the great debates with Douglas was made at Danville on September 22, 1858. Lincoln was in Danville when on November 13, 1859, ne wrote the letter to James A. Briggs of New York confirming arrangements for what was soon to become known as the Cooper Union Speech — an address that first re- vealed his full stature to the people of the Atlantic seaboard and a few months later helped to make him the Republican nominee for the Presidency. Finally Danville was the last town in Illinois through which Lincoln, with the devoted Lamon keeping him com- pany, passed on his way to the inauguration at Wash- ington, and local tradition has it that he lingered long on the platform of the moving train while looking for the last time on his adopted state. The daguerreotype here reproduced is now owned by William L. Hilyard of Nebraska, who asserts that his father, then serving as a deputy sheriff, through Page 53 court house contacts, early became an admiring friend of Lincoln, who now and again lodged with the Hilyard family when in Danville. During one of these visits the two friends agreed upon an exchange of pictures, and for that purpose made a joint visit to the photograph gallery of Amon J. T. Joslin, later exchanging the da- guerreotypes then made for them. Mr. Clint Clay Tilton of Danville in sending the writer a copy of the Lincoln portrait kindly added this interesting detail: "Joslin was our pioneer photographer and operated until 1887 when he disposed of his gallery to a man named Phillips and opened our 'first steam laundry.' His 'gallery' was on the second floor of the building in the southwest corner of the public square and was next to the Wood- bury drug store — - a favorite loafing place for Lincoln when he was drumming up acquaintances who might later be clients." Page 54 Number IX. WOOD ENGRAVING BY GUSTAV KRUELL OF PHOTO- GRAPH BY S. M. FASSETT TAKEN AT CHICAGO IN OCTOBER, 1859. Meserve No. 8 Number IX. WOOD ENGRAVING BY GUSTAV KRUELL OF PHOTOGRAPH BY S. M. FASSETT TAKEN AT CHICAGO IN OCTOBER, 1859. Meserve No. 8. A number of pictures of Lincoln were taken in 1859, but none of the other attempts to secure a speaking likeness met with as wide a measure of favor as did the one by Fassett. This picture was made at the solicitation of the subject's friend, D. B. Cook who in after years told Miss Ida M. Tarbell that Mrs. Lin- coln had declared it the best likeness she had ever seen of her husband. The negative along with 30,000 others taken by Fassett was lost in the Chicago fire of Octo- ber, 1 87 1, but Rajon, the French artist, based his well- known etching on this photograph, however, making material changes in the face, while Gustav Kruell made a fine wood engraving of it, in keeping with his por- traits of Grant and Sherman, which appeared in Har- per's Magazine for April, 1885, and is reproduced in this place. Page 57 Number X. AMBROTYPE BY MATTHEW B. BRADY TAKEN AT NEW YORK CITY ON FEBRUARY 27, 1860. Meserve Nos. 19 and 20. Number X. AMBROTYPE BY MATTHEW B. BRADY TAKEN AT NEW YORK CITY ON FEB- RUARY 27, 1860. Meserve Nos. 19 and 20. Lincoln's debates with Douglas widened his repu- tation and without delay brought him many invita- tions to lecture. Thus in October, 1859, James A. Briggs, acting for a young men's Republican club in New York, wrote Lincoln requesting him to deliver a lecture in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, which then had Henry Ward Beecher for its pastor. This invitation was ac- cepted and after further correspondence February 27, i860 was agreed upon as the date for the delivery of the address, Lincoln also deciding that he would make "a political speech of it." And when he reached New York he was informed that the place where he was to speak had been changed to Cooper Institute. The afternoon preceding his address Lincoln made a visit with members of the reception committee to the studio of Matthew Brady for the first of the many sittings he was to give that famous photographer. Three negatives were taken at this first sitting. One was the full length here reproduced. The second was a bust portrait which had early and wide circulation for campaign purposes. The third, also a bust portrait, Lincoln upon his return to Springfield gave to his wife who kept it as a prized possession for many years. When William Wallace Lincoln died in February, 1862 in his twelfth year, the President was so moved by the address of Dr. Phineas D. Gurley, pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington at the funeral of his little son, that he then requested Page 61 Mrs. Lincoln, should he predecease her, to present the portrait on her own death to Dr. Gurley's family. Twenty years later this request had fulfilment, and in the course of time the portrait passed into the posses- sion of a well-known collector of Lincolniana, the late Henry M. Leland of Detroit. Its present whereabouts are unknown to the writer. Lincoln more than once declared that the portrait of him taken by Brady on February 27, i860, and the address which he delivered at Cooper Institute the evening of that day made him President. And there is abundant proof that the speech that helped to make history was the fruit of much thought and labor. Its actual composition was preceded by months of patient research in the Illinois State Library and of study of other available sources, and it was written and twice rewritten before it assumed its final form. Henry B. Rankin, then a student in the law office of Lincoln and Herndon, offers revealing testimony as to the slow growth of the finished speech. Herndon's patience, he records, was tried sorely at times to see Lincoln "loiter- ing and cutting, as he thought, too laborously; but when the speech was completed, he admitted it was well worth the time devoted to it, and that it would be the crowning effort of Lincoln's life up to that time as it certainly proved to be. It was past the middle of February before the speech was completed and put into the folder ready for Lincoln's departure. And even later, every day until it was placed in his travelling satchel, he took out the sheets and carefully went over the pages, making notations here and there, and even writing whole pages over again." Page 62 William Cullen Bryant presided at the meeting at Cooper Institute on the evening of February 27, and the audience which gave Lincoln an attentive hear- ing included many of the foremost citizens of New York, among them Horace Greeley, who pronounced his address the ablest and most convincing agrument against the extension of slavery that had been made up to that time. Thus in an impressive way were Lin- coln's rare moral and intellectual qualities revealed to the people of the Eastern States, and it was the support of delegates from those states that three short months later assured his nomination for the Presidency. At the moment, however, although it brought him invitations to speak which he could not refuse, Lincoln did not clearly realize the profound effect his address was to have on his personal fortunes. This is made clear in a letter to his wife dated at Exeter, New Hampshire, where he had gone to visit his son Robert immediately after its delivery. "I have been unable to escape this toil," he wrote Mrs. Lincoln on March 4. "If I had foreseen it, I think I would not have come East at all. The speech at New York, being within my calcula- tion before I started, went off passably well and gave me no trouble whatever. The difficulty was to make nine others before audiences who had already seen all my ideas in print/' And another difficulty was presented to Lincoln when on his return to Springfield he had to face the charge made and repeated that he had received money for a lecture, a procedure pronounced by some of his critics a violation of ethics and good taste. "It is not true" he wrote his friend C. F. McNeil on April 6, Page 63 "that I ever charged anything for a political speech in my life; but this much is true: Last October I was requested by letter to deliver some sort of speech in Mr. Beecher's church in Brooklyn — two hundred dollars being offered in the first letter. I wrote that I could do it in February, provided they would take a political speech if I could find time to get up no other. They agreed, and subsequently I informed them the speech would have to be a political one. When I reached New York I for the first time learned that the place was changed to Cooper Institute. I made the speech and left for New Hampshire, where I have a son at school, neither asking for pay, nor having any offered me. Three days after a check for two hundred dollars was sent to me at New Hampshire ; and I took it, and did not know it was wrong. My understanding now is — though I knew nothing of it at the time — that they did charge for admittance to the Cooper Institute, and that they took in more than twice two hundred dollars." Another sequel to the Cooper Institute speech often recalled by Amos J . Cummings, in turn printer, proof- reader, editor and member of Congress, is charged with rueful interest for every collector of Lincolniana — either in act or desire. On his arrival in New York, Lincoln, with due regard for publicity, arranged with Horace Greeley for the publication of his speech in the Tribune. Accordingly his manuscript was duly turned over to the foreman of that journal, and it was planned that after the delivery of the speech he should call at the Tribune office for a reading of the proof- slips. The address delivered, Lincoln was taken by Page 64 members of the reception committee to the Athenaeum Club where a modest lunch was ordered and discussed. Later, accompanied part of the way by one of his hosts, he boarded the street car that was to take him to Printing House Square. The story runs that Cummings, who was then a Tribune proofreader, had just begun comparing the galley proofs with Lincoln's manuscript when Lincoln appeared and, drawing a chair to the table, sat down beside him, adjusted his glasses, and in the glare of the gas light read each galley with scrupulous care. This process completed, he waited until the revised proofs were brought in, chatting the while about midnight life in a newspaper office, when these in turn were read and corrected. "After all the proofs were read," Cummings was wont to relate, "Lincoln had a few pleasant words with me and then quietly went out alone and passed through Printing House Square and City Hall Park to the Astor House where he was lodged." But, as the proofs had been read and revised, the manuscript of an address that was to make history, had been tossed sheet by sheet into a convenient wastebasket to be claimed in due course by the junk man! Matthew B. Brady, who on February 27, i860, began what was to prove a memorable association with Lincoln, had already won outstanding success in his calling and during the Civil War was to become the most widely known photographer of his period. He was born in Warren County, New York, in 1823, and while still in his teens met at Saratoga William Page, the portrait painter, who taught him to draw and later in New York introduced him to Samuel F. B. Morse. Page 65 Through Morse young Brady became interested in Daguerre's discoveries, then lately made known to the world, and soon became skilled in the practice of a new and interesting craft. Despite his youth, his work speedily won favor and the studio which he opened in lower New York about 1843 numbered its patrons first by hundreds and later by thousands, his portraits being awarded medals both at home and abroad. In 1855 Brady discarded the daguerreotype for the photograph, and in his new field the most eminent Americans in all walks of life were numbered among his sitters. At the outset of the Civil War he resolved to photograph in all their phases the activities of the Union soldiery in camp and battlefield. With the aid of President Lincoln and others he received permis- sion to accompany the armies east and west, and be- tween 1 86 1 and 1865, frequently at the imminent risk of life and limb, he and his assistants took more than 3,500 photographs ranging from scenes of actual con- flict and after-battle devastation to officers and men on the march or in bivouac. Two thousand of these photographs were later purchased by the government and are now stored in the War College at Washington. Brady earned large sums in his prosperous years, but spent and gave without thought of the morrow. What he did manage to retain was in large part swept away in the Panic of 1873, anc ^ although he continued until an advanced age to practice his calling in New York and Washington, it was with diminished prestige and lessening returns. He was afflicted in his last years by failing sight, and, after a long period of illness and poverty borne without complaint, in 1896 died in a Page 66 New York hospital, where friends of earlier and better days paid for his care. Brady's success as a photo- grapher was based on solid merit. Gifted with initia- tive and artistry, he knew how to pose and to make the camera reveal the character of a sitter, as his best photographs of Lincoln bear eloquent witness. Page 67 Num6er XI. ENGRAVING BY THOMAS JOHNSON OF LIFE MASK BY LEONARD WELLS VOLK, MADE AT CHICAGO, IN APRIL, 1860 Number XI. ENGRAVING BY THOMAS JOHN- SON OF LIFE MASK BY LEONARD WELLS VOLK MADE AT CHICAGO, IN APRIL, 1860. Lincoln was in Chicago from March 25 until April j 4, i860, engaged as one of the attorneys in the trial of the noted Sand Bar case. Reading of his arrival in the city, Leonard W. Volk, the sculptor who had just returned from Washington to Chicago, recalled a meeting with him in Lincoln, Illinois, during the sena- torial campaign of 1858, and the promise he had then made to give sittings for a bust when opportunity offered itself. Volk's story of what followed is related at length in an article which he contributed to The Century Magazine for December, 1 88 1 . He relates that at once setting forth in search of Lincoln he found him in the federal court room surrounded by a group of lawyers, and that when he came outside the rail to greet him, recalled the pledge of sittings at a conven- ient time. "I shall be glad to give you the sittings," said Lincoln. "When shall I come, and how long will you need me each time?" In response to this question it was arranged that he should visit Volk's studio two mornings later, and that thereafter he should give a sitting before the open- ing of court each day during the remainder of his stay in Chicago. Lincoln appeared promptly at the hour appointed, climbed four flights of stairs to reach the sculptor's studio, and seating himself in a low armed chair said : 71 "Mr. Volk, I have never sat before to sculptor or painter — only for daguerreotypes and photographs. What shall I do?" The sculptor explained that at this first visit he would only take the measurement of his sitter's head and shoulders, but that the next morning, in order to save a number of sittings, he would make a cast of his face. Mr. Volk thus describes Lincoln's reaction to the making of the mask : "He sat naturally in the chair when I made the cast and saw every move I made in a mirror opposite, as I put the plaster on without interference with his eyesight or his free breathing through his nostrils. It was about an hour before the mold was ready to be removed, and being all in one piece, with both ears, perfectly taken, it clung pretty hard, as the cheek bones were higher than the jaws at the lobe of the ear. He bent his head low and took hold of the mold and gradually worked it off without breaking or injury." The sittings were continued daily for a week, that of Sunday lasting more than four hours, and then Lincoln took his leave of the sculptor, later quaintly referring to the bust that resulted from them as "the animal himself. " Mr. Volk chanced to arrive in Spring- field late on Friday, May 18, i860, a few hours after Lincoln's nomination for President, and hurrying to the Lincoln home, where he was warmly welcomed, announced himself "the first man from Chicago" to congratulate his host on the honor that had come to him. "Now that you will doubtless be the next Presi- dent of the United States, " he added, " I want to make a statue of you, and shall do my best to do you justice. " Page 72 To this proposition Lincoln promptly assented, and it was arranged that he should give the following fore- noon to obtaining full length photographs to serve the sculptor in the execution of the proposed statue. This plan was carried out, and as a further aid on Sunday morning Mr. Volk again visited Lincoln at his home to make a cast of his hands. "I found him ready," the sculptor wrote in 1881, "but he looked more grave and serious than he had appeared on prev- ious days. I wished him to hold something in his right hand, and he looked for a piece of pasteboard, but could find none. I told him a round stick would do as well as anything. Thereupon he went to the woodshed ; I heard the saw go, and he soon returned to the draw- ing room, where I did the work, whittling off the end of a piece of broom handle. I remarked to him that he need not whittle off the edges. 'Oh, well,' he said, 'I thought I would like to have it nice/ That Sunday evening/ 1 writes Mr. Volk, concluding his Century article in 1 88 1 , "I returned to Chicago with the molds of his hands, three photographic negatives of him, the identical black alapaca campaign suit of 1858, and a pair of Lynn newly made pegged boots. The clothes were all burned up in the great Chicago fire. The casts of the face and the hands I saved by taking them with me to Rome, and they have crossed the sea four times/ ' Volk's full-length statue of Lincoln never took sat- isfying form, and the bust modeled in the spring morn- ings of i860, while a sound piece of workmanship, lacks the note of authority; but the life mask on which the latter was based, and with which the casts of Lincoln's hands are generally associated, has poignant and re- Page 73 vealing interest for every lover of Lincoln. Near the end of its maker's life, a committee of which Richard Watson Gilder was chairman, purchased it for $1,500; had a large replica made of it, and then presented both original and replica to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. Those who reverently study them in their present home will agree with the tribute penned by Gilder in his familiar sonnet: This mask doth keep the very form and mold Of our great martyr's face. Yes, this is he; That brow all wisdom, all benignity; That human, humorous mouth; those cheeks that hold Like some harsh landscape all the summer's gold; That spirit fit for sorrow, as the sea For storms to beat on ; the lone agony Those silent, patient lips too well foretold. Yes, this is he who ruled a world of men As might some prophet of the elder day — Brooding above the tempest and the fray With deep-eyed thought and more than mortal ken. A power was his beyond the touch of art Or armed strength — his pure and mighty heart. Page 74 Number XII. WOOD ENGRAVING BY TIMOTHY COLE OF AN AM- BROTYPE BY WILLIAM CHURCH TAKEN AT SPRINGFIELD, MAY 20, 1860. Meserve No. 22. Number XII. WOOD ENGRAVING BY TIMOTHY COLE OF AN AMBROTYPE BY WILLIAM CHURCH TAKEN AT SPRINGFIELD, MAY 20, 1860. Meserve No. 22. The days immediately following the nomination of Lincoln for President on May 18, i860, brought many visitors to his modest Springfield home. One of these was Marcus L. Ward, of Newark, New Jersey, who had been a delegate to the convention, and who later was to serve as governor of his state and as a member of Congress. "The day succeeding Mr. Lin- coln's nomination, " Mr. Ward wrote the editor of The Century Magazine on December 19, 1881, in trans- mitting the ambrotype portrait here reproduced, "I left Chicago for his home in Springfield, for the purpose of congratulating him and making his personal ac- quaintance. I was kindly received, and invited to share his hospitalities. Though this kindness was declined, I was enabled to see much of him during the few days of my sojourn at Springfield. On the next day after my arrival — the 20th — I suggested to Mr. Lincoln that I would like to be the possessor of a good likeness of him. He replied that he had not a satisfactory one, "but then," he added, "we will walk out together and I will sit for one." The picture I send you was a result of that sitting. No one, I imagine, will fail to recognize in the expression of the face those noble qualities of the man — honesty, gentleness and kindness of heart — which so endeared him to all who knew him." The wood engraving by Cole here reproduced originally ap- peared in The Century Magazine for February, 1909. Page 77 Number XIII. PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN MAY 24, 1860 AT SPRINGFIELD. PHOTOGRAPHER UN- KNOWN, BUT PROBABLY PRES. BUTLER. Number XIII. PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT SPRING- FIELD, MAY 24, 1860. PHOTOGRAPHER UN- KNOWN, BUT PROBABLY PRES. BUTLER. This interesting and little known photograph was taken at the instance of Joseph H. Barrett, who a few days before had been a delegate from Ohio to the Republican National Convention of i860 and who was already under contract to write a campaign biography of its nominee for the Presidency. " I was confident my subject would not be Mr. Seward/ 1 Mr. Barrett wrote many years later, "but had no presentiment that the choice of the convention would be Abraham Lincoln, whom I had then never met. In my first interview with him, soon after the adjournment of the convention, he earnestly and even sadly insisted that there was no adequate matter for such a work as was intended, yet he received me very kindly, and showed no unusual reserve in talking of either his earlier or his maturer life. As to both periods he readily gave such facts as my inquiries invited or suggested; introduced me to friends with whom he had been on intimate terms for more than twenty years; and put me in the way of exploring newspaper files and legislative journals in the Illinois State Library for biographic material. He told me of his correspondence with one of his father's relatives in Rockingham County, Virginia, and with one of the Lincolns of Massachusetts, without obtain- ing positive proof of the relationship which later re- search has rendered certain. Recognizing that his par- ents were of humble life, and ranking himself with the plain people, he distinctly claimed to be of a stock Page 81 which, though it had produced no great men of emin- ence, had always been of good repute in general, both as to character and capacity. At my request and in my presence (May 24, 1861) he sat for a daguerreotype, which was lithographically reproduced for the volume then in preparation, published the following month." The acquaintance thus begun between Lincoln and his biographer became in no long time an intimate and trustful one. Barrett passed a portion of the campaign in Springfield, kept Lincoln company during part of his journey to Washington in February, 1861, to be in due course appointed Commissioner of Pensions, and in that position to serve as one of the President's valued advisers during the remainder of his days. Barrett's campaign life was twice revised and expanded first in 1864 and again in 1865 after Lincoln's death, and enjoyed a wide sale. Finally in 1903, when its author was an old man, it was issued as a two-volume work, a photogravure of the photograph taken in May, i860, and here reproduced serving as frontispiece to the second volume. This photograph was also a favorite with Henry B. Rankin who in 1924 chose it as a front- ispiece for his "Intimate Character Sketches of Abra- ham Lincoln." Page 82 Number XIV. PHOTOGRAPH BY ALEXANDER HESLER TAKEN AT SPRINGFIELD, JUNE 3, 1860. Meserve No. 26. Number XIV. PHOTOGRAPH BY ALEXANDER HESLER TAKEN AT SPRINGFIELD, JUNE 3, 1860. Meserve No. 26. In February, 1857, as set forth above, Alexander Hesler of Chicago made an ambrotype of Lincoln which in i860 was used for the first Republican cam- paign badges, but the tousled hair in this portrait soon caused it to lose favor with the Lincoln managers. Ac- cordingly, June 3 Hesler visited Springfield and made two fine photographs, one of which is reproduced in this place. Lincoln after seeing it, said to Hesler: "That looks better and expresses me better than any I have ever seen; if it pleases the people I am satisfied." And that it pleased the people is witnessed by the fact that it had a wider circulation than any of the other pictures of Lincoln taken before he began to grow a beard. Jesse W. Weik, who selected it as the frontispiece to his "Real Lincoln: A Portrait," quotes William H. Herndon as saying of this photograph: "There is the peculiar curve of the lower lip, the lone mole on the right cheek, and a pose of the head so essentially Lin- colnian; no other artist has ever caught it." And like praise was given it by Henry C. Whitney, another close friend of Lincoln. "The negative," Whitney declared, "gives the most graphic, striking and accurate picture of him now extant. It shows him exactly as he was when he was nominated for President. " An interesting story attaches to the preservation of the two negatives made by Hesler in Springfield. Early in 1865, the photographer sold his Chicago studio to George B. Ayres, and shortly thereafter, the latter Page 85 in going through the stock of old negatives to cull out obsolete ones, came upon the two taken in Springfield. Ayres laid them aside, and when Lincoln was assinated he wrapped them up with care, and included them in the personal belongings which, after the sale of the Chicago gallery in 1867, he carried with him first to Buffalo and then to Philadelphia. When in 1886, Nic- olay and Hay began the publication of their "Abra- ham Lincoln: A History" in The Century Magazine, Ayres brought from hiding the Springfield negatives, and Thomas Johnson made a fine wood engraving of one of them to accompany that work. The interest thus aroused, prompted the owner to arrange for its general distribution, and it, with the companion portrait are now known to Lincoln collectors as the Ayres prints. Truesdell in his "Engraved and Lithographed Por- traits of Abraham Lincoln" lists no less than twenty- nine etching, litho, wood cut, mezzotint and photo- gravure reproductions of the two Springfield nega- tives taken by Hesler and guarded through the years by the man to whom he sold them. Page 86 Number XV. LITHOGRAPHIC REPRODUCTION OF A CRAYON PORTRAIT MADE BY CHARLES A. BARRY AT SPRINGFIELD IN JUNE, 1860. Number XV. LITHOGRAPHIC REPRODUCTION OF A CRAYON PORTRAIT MADE BY CHARLES A. BARRY AT SPRINGFIELD IN JUNE, 1860. A number of artists of varying skill flocked to Spring- field in the summer of i860 to sketch or paint Lincoln from life. Perhaps the first to arrive on the scene was Charles A. Barry, then a drawing master in the public schools of Boston, who had been promptly commissioned by Nathaniel P. Banks, John A. Andrew and other prominent Republicans of Massachusetts to make a portrait of their lately nominated candidate for the Presidency. Accordingly Barry arrived in Springfield in the afternoon of Saturday, June 3, i860, armed with a letter of introduction from General Banks. What followed is graphically set forth, with minor changes in phrasing, in an article which he contributed to the Boston Transcript in 1892: " I went at once to the Lincoln home and rang the bell, when a very small boy called out, "Hello, Mister, what yer want?' I replied that I wished to see Mr. Lincoln and had come all the way from Boston for that purpose. Then the small boy shouted, 'Come down, Pop; here's a man from Boston,' and an instant later Mr. Lincoln appeared holding out a hand of welcome towards me. They want my head, do they?' he asked, twisting my letter of introduction in his hands. 'Well, if you can get it you may have it, that is, if you are able to take it off while I am on the jump; but don't fasten me into a chair. I suppose you Boston folks don't get up at cock-crowing as we do out here. I am an early riser, and if you will come to my room Page 89 at the State House on Monday at seven o'clock sharp, I will be there to let you in. ' 'The good man plainly thought I could not be ready at such an early hour for he shook with sup- pressed laughter when bidding me goodnight. But Monday morning came, and precisely at the hour named, I turned the corner of the street upon which the State House faced to see Mr. Lincoln coming to- ward me from the other end of the sidewalk. 'Well done, my boy, ' he said as we shook hands. ' You are an early bird after all, if you do hail from Boston. Now, then, what shall I do?' he asked when we reached the room — the executive chamber of the State House — which had lately been assigned to his use, at the same time pointing to a pile of unopened letters on a table. 'Absolutely nothing,' I replied, 'but allow me to walk around you occasionally, and once in a while measure a distance on your face. I will not disturb you in the least otherwise. ' 'Capital, ' said Mr. Lincoln with a smile. 'I won't be in the least bit scared; go right ahead. ' Then he threw off his coat, and seating himself at the table in his shirt sleeves, plunged his hand into the great sheaf of letters before him, leaving me to begin my task. "How vividly it all comes back to me — the lonely room, the great bony figure with its long arms and legs that seemed to be continually twisting themselves to- gether; the long, wiry neck; the narrow chest, the un- combed hair; the cavernous sockets beneath the high forehead; the bushy eyebrows hanging like curtains over the bright, dreamy eyes, the awkward speech, the evident sincerity and patience. The studies thus begun Page 90 were continued each morning for ten days. I did not require any long times of sitting, but sketched and studied Mr. Lincoln's features while he was busy at his writing table or moving about the room, or when I was with him at his house or on the street. Much of my best work upon the portrait was done after moments of conversation with Mr. Lincoln, when he had turned away from his table and was facing me. At such times I had ample opportunity to study the wonderful face, which in its entire construction was extraordinary. The head, as a whole, was very large, and the upper part of it high above the eyebrows, contrasting strangely with the thin and sunken cheeks and prominent cheekbones. But the eyes I looked upon so often never can be fully described by human language. They were not remarkable for constant brightness — on the contrary were dreamy and melancholy, always so when at rest, but could become, in an instant, when moved by some great thought, like coals of living fire. I have seen the eyes of Webster and Choate, of Macready, Forrest and the elder Booth, when they startled and awed the be- holder, but I have never seen in all the wanderings of a varied life, such eyes as Lincoln had. His head was Jacksonian in shape, and the angle of the jaw all that nature intended that it should be as a sign of power and determination. It was ill advice that caused the growing of whiskers upon Lincoln's face, for they utterly destroyed the harmony of its features, and added not a little to the melancholy of his counten- ance when in repose. Mr. Lincoln was a man of moods, and seemed to be constantly influenced by them, but not to the loss of a great and brave individuality. Thus Page 9 1 I had no end of trouble in getting the expression I wanted of his mouth — of the whole lower part of his face, in fact — his countenance changed so quickly. "At the end of ten days my crayon portrait was finished, and I felt amply rewarded for my labor when Mr. Lincoln, pointing to it, said: 'Even my enemies must declare that to be a true likeness of Old Abe. ' Upon my return to Boston my original was reproduced in lithographic form and exhibited in turn in Chicago, New York and Boston. When it was first on exhibi- tion in New York, at the studio of George Ward Nichols, standing on an easel in the center of the room facing Broadway, a short, thick-set gentleman walked in and paused before it. He did not speak to me and I did not speak to him. He stood for a little while a short distance from the picture. Then he stepped forward and, folding his arms across his breast, said slowly with clear utterance: 'An honest man, God knows.' The next instant he passed out of the room. This visitor as I learned later was Stephen A. Douglas." Thus ends the artist's story of the first portrait of Lincoln executed from life. Barry's handiwork long since disappeared from the knowledge and sight of men. Only a few lithographic impressions of the crayon sketch were struck off, due, it is said, to an accidental breaking of the lithographic stone and it is believed that less than a dozen of them are now in existence. In 191 1, one of these lithographs passed into the pos- session of Otho Wiecker of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the photogravure he had made of it is reproduced in this place. Its rugged and sad sincerity give it a place of its own among Lincoln portraits. Page 92 Number XVI. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY THOMAS HICKS PAINTED AT SPRINGFIELD IN JUNE, 1860. Number XVI. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY THOMAS HICKS PAINTED AT SPRINGFIELD IN JUNE, 1860. The second artist to whom Lincoln granted sittings on the morrow of his nomination for the Presi- dency was Thomas Hicks, a native of Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, who after long and thorough training at home and in Europe, had been for a decade a popular and successful portrait painter in New York where after 1851, he was also a member of the Nat- ional Academy of Design. When news of the choice of the Chicago convention flashed over the wires, a leading publishing house at once engaged Hicks to go to Springfield and paint a portrait of Lincoln, pre- liminary to a lithograph to be used in the pending campaign. Armed with a letter of introduction from Charles A. Dana, then managing editor of the New York Tribune to William H. Herndon, Hicks journeyed to Springfield, and on an early June morning was con- ducted to Lincoln at his temporary quarters in the State House. What followed is set forth in an account which the painter wrote in 1885 for a volume edited by Allen Thorndike Rice and entitled "Reminiscences of Abra- ham Lincoln by Distinguished Men of His Time. " Hicks says in part: "... when I stood in the pres- ence of a tall, gaunt man, with a pleasant expression on his well marked features, and had a hearty hand- shake from his long, swinging arm, I saw that in my subject there was plenty of character with which to make a desirable likeness. When he had read Dana's Page 95 letter, which explained the object of my visit, he said: 'Yes, I will do in this matter what my friends in New York wish of me; and I am much obliged to you, sir, for coming so far to paint my likeness for them.' He then asked if I wanted a particular kind of light for my work. There was a very suitable light in his office, and it was quickly arranged that I should do my work there, and that he should give me sittings from eight to nine o'clock in the morning, and at any time during the remainder of the day when he was not too much engaged. " In an hour I had the easel up and had commenced the first sitting. Mr. Lincoln was already taking an interest in the work; and, at the conclusion of the sitting, during which I had made the usual charcoal sketch, looking at it, he said : ' I see the likeness, sir. ' Mr. Lincoln had given up his law practice that he might devote his time to the campaign and each day had many visitors, most of whom were from the North- ern and Western States. Many were strangers who came to pay their respects to him; others came to reestablish old friendships or to strengthen new ones; but all were delighted to listen to his quaint remarks and humorous stories. On the office wall was hanging a very dark photograph with a light background, and a guest from the East said : ' I see a photograph of you there/ pointing to the one on the wall, 'but it does not appear to have any sun in it. ' 'No, ' said Mr. Lincoln, with his peculiar smile, ' Parson Brownlow says I am a nigger ; and>if he had judged from that picture, he would have had some ground for his assertion. ' "I found Mr. Lincoln's temper even, his voice mild and persuasive, and the habit of his mind to ad- Page 96 # vise rather than to rebuke. My color tubes were on a table at the side of the room. One day Mr. Lincoln's little son, Tad, with a companion came noiselessly into the office. His father was sitting at his desk with his back to them, and so absorbed that he did not hear them come in. I was busy with the portrait. The little fellows got among my paints. They took the brightest blue, yellow and red. Then they squeezed from a tube into their palms a lot of the red, and smeared it on the wall. Next they took the blue and smeared that in another place, and afterward they smeared the yellow. I saw their excitement and mischief from the begin- ning, but held my peace, watching the young colorists, as, still as mice, they made their first effort in wall decoration, while getting the paint all over their hands, faces and clothes. At this juncture of affairs, Tad's father, turning in his chair, saw their condition and what they had done. He said, in the mildest tone and with the greatest affection: 'Boys! Boys! You must not meddle with Mr. Hicks' paints. Now run home and have your faces and hands washed. ' And the little fellows took his advice and left the office without a word. Lincoln was often silent and thoughtful, but he never wore a frown, and I loved him from my first day with him. 'The portrait was finished. Mr. Lincoln had taken great interest in its progress, and expressed himself as pleased with the result. 'It will give the people of the East, ' he said, ' a correct idea of how I look at home, and, in fact, how I look in my office. I think the picture has a somewhat pleasanter expression than I usually have, but that, perhaps, is not an objection.' Mrs. Page 97 Lincoln was to have come to the office to see the por- trait, but it rained on the day appointed, so I had it taken to the house. It was carried to the drawing-room, where I put it in a proper light to be seen, and placed a chair for Mrs. Lincoln. Sitting down before it, she said: 'Yes, that is Mr. Lincoln. It is exactly like him, and his friends in New York will see him as he looks here at home. How I wish I could keep it, or have a copy of it/ One of the trusted friends with whom Mr. Lincoln often conferred during the campaign of i860 was Orville H. Browning of Quincy, later the successor of Douglas in the Senate and a member of Johnson's cabinet, who more than once and with lively interest watched Hicks at work. On June 13, Browning wrote in his diary: "Spent a portion of the day with Lincoln, talking to him whilst Mr. Hicks worked on his portrait. He completed it this afternoon. In my judgment it is an exact life-like likeness, and a beautiful work of art. It is deeply imbued with the intellectual and spiritual, and I doubt whether any one ever succeeds in getting a better picture of the man." The same day Browning gave this letter to the artist: "I have carefully examined the portrait of Hon. A. Lincoln painted by Thomas Hicks, Esq., and do not hesitate to pronounce it a great success. I have known Mr. Lincoln intimately for many years, and was present and in conversation with him much of the time whilst it was being painted, and cannot adequately express my admiration of the fidelity of the picture, and the perfect and satisfactory idea which it gives of the original, and his physical mental and moral characteristics. I doubt whether art is capable of transferring to canvass a more exact and life-like representa- tion of the human face divine. ' O. H. Browning" Page 98 Mr. Hicks died in 1890 at the age of sixty-seven. A lithographic copy of his portrait of Lincoln had wide circulation during the campaign of i860. The present whereabouts of the original, here reproduced from a crayon copy are unknown. Page 99 7; - c/T^^cWS Number XVII. CRAYON PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINTED BY THOMAS M. J. JOHNSTON AT SPRINGFIELD IN JULY, 1860. Number XVI I. CRAYON PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINTED BY THOMAS M. J. JOHNSTON AT SPRINGFIELD IN JULY, 1860. David Claypoole Johnston, named for the man who printed the first copy of the Federal Con- stitution, holds a secure if modest place in the history of art on this side of the sea. An illustrator and carica- turist of skill, with a keen yet kindly eye for the follies of his fellow humans, and known in the 4o's of the last century as "the American Cruikshank, " he was also the begetter of a family of artists. The black-and- white work of his daughter Sarah found admirers, and his son, John B. Johnston, two of whose canvases hang in the Boston Museum of Art, was long a cattle painter held in respectful regard by his fellow artists. A second son, Thomas, aside from the training given him by his father, studied with William Morris Hunt and Samuel Rowse, the latter a skilled lithographic draftsman, and the best crayon portrait artist of his period. Thomas Johnston early excelled in portraiture, more particularly in the use of crayon and charcoal, and late in June, i860, at the age of twenty-four, was com- missioned by C. H. Brainard, a lithographic publisher .of Boston, to visit Springfield and execute a portrait of Lincoln. Young Johnston, armed with the necessary letters of introduction, reached Springfield on July 19, and was promptly promised a sitting for the following day by Lincoln, who to aid the artist in his work, gave him a copy of the photograph taken two years before for Mrs. Chapman. (See Number VI). After his first Page 103 sitting in the early morning of July 20, Johnston wrote as follows to his father: "Mr. Lincoln sat today by appointment at his office, which makes a fine studio. He is a very tall, awkward-looking man, but with a face and head I really consider beautiful in the extreme, when com- pared with all of the pictures that have been published over his name. This fact is very encouraging to me- I had reason to expect to see a face that reminded one more of an oversized pea than anything else. Mr. Lin- coln's title of ugly must be owing entirely to his figure. Tell Mr. Brainard that he can count on an attractive picture and a good likeness of Mr. Lincoln, and that I will make one, for Mr. Lincoln is a good sitter. He makes a business of it. I will go again tomorrow morn- ing at 7:30 a. m. " Two days later the artist wrote again: "Mr. Lin- coln sat for the second time yesterday, and I have made good progress. I hope to finish it in three more sittings, for he is a first-rate sitter, and a much better looking man than I had reason to suppose him to be. His ugli- ness is entirely owing to his figure." Johnston's crayon portrait was completed on July 26. A few days later the artist was back in Boston, and soon a lithograph he made of his original was having wide distribution in the East. A copy of this lithograph is here given reproduction. It is a fine drawing, clear cut and well modeled, the eyes deep set and thought- ful, and faithfully reflecting the character of the sitter. Prompted by his success with Lincoln, young John- ston also without delay drew on stone portraits of Emerson, Sumner, Phillips and Garrison, but shortly Page 104 gave up lithographic work as too confining, and turned with noteworthy results to landscape and portrait painting. One of his best known works, an altar piece entitled "Mary — the Morning Star, " vigorous in exe- cution, elevated in spirit and charged with deep relig- ious feeling, hangs in front of the choir of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Boston. In October, 1868, Johnston, who was much loved by his fellow artists in Boston, went to France to continue his studies, and died as the result of an operation in Paris, on Feb- ruary 28, 1869, at the early age of thirty-three years. Page 105 Number XVIII. MEZZOTINT BY JOHN SARTAIN OF MINIATURE BY JOHN HENRY BROWN PAINTED AT SPRINGFIELD IN AUGUST, I860. Number XVIII. MEZZOTINT BY JOHN SARTAIN OF MINIATURE BY JOHN HENRY BROWN PAINTED AT SPRINGFIELD IN AUGUST, 1860. On August 13, i860, John Henry Brown, a leading miniature painter of the period, arrived in Spring- field with a letter of introduction from John M. Read of Philadelphia, then on the bench of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, who had commissioned him to paint a miniature of Lincoln. During his stay in Spring- field, Mr. Brown made the following entries in his diary : "13th, Called at Mr. Lincoln's house to see him. As he was not in I was directed to the Executive Cham- ber in the State Capitol. I found him there. Handed him my letter from Judge Read. He at once consented to sit for his picture. We walked together from the Executive Chamber to a Daguerrian establishment. I had a half dozen of ambrotypes taken of him before I could get one to suit me. I was at once most favorably impressed with Mr. Lincoln. In the afternoon I un- packed my painting materials. " 14th, Commenced Mr. Lincoln's picture. At it all day. " 15th, At Mr. Lincoln's picture. " 1 6th, Mr. Lincoln gave me his first sitting in the library room of the State Capitol. Called to see Mrs. Lincoln, much pleased with her. Wrote five letters. " 17th, 1 8th, At Mr. Lincoln's picture. Received an invitation from Mrs. Lincoln to take tea with them. " 19th, Sunday. Wrote letters. "20th, Mr. Lincoln's second sitting. Have arranged to have his sittings in the Representative Chamber. Page 109 "21st, At Mr. Lincoln's picture. Heard from home, all well. tk 22nd, Mr. Lincoln's third sitting. "23rd, At Mr. Lincoln's picture. "24th, Mr. Lincoln's fourth sitting. "25th, Mr. Lincoln's fifth and last sitting. The picture gives great satisfaction. Mrs. Lincoln speaks of it in the most extravagant terms of approbation. ' w 26th, Sunday. At church. Saw Mrs. Lincoln there. I hardly know how to express the strength of my per- sonal regard for Mr. Lincoln. I never saw a man for whom I so soon formed zr\ attachment. I like him much and agree with him in all things but his politics. He is very kind and sociable, immensely popular among the people of Springfield; even those opposed to him in politics speak of him in unqualified terms of praise. He is 51 years old, 6 feet 4 inches high and weighs 160 pounds. There are so many hard lines in his face that it becomes a mask to the inner man. His true character only shines when in an animated conversation or when telling an amusing tale, of which he is very fond. He is said to be a homely man. I do not think so . . . "27th, The people of Springfield who have seen Mr. Lincoln's picture speak of it in strong terms of approbation, declaring it to be the best that has yet been taken of him. Received a letter from Mr. Lincoln endorsing the picture, also from Mrs. Lincoln express- ing her unqualified satisfaction with it; also one from Mr. John G. Nicolay, Mr. Lincoln's confidential clerk, and one from the man who took the ambrotype. " Diligent search has failed to discover any of the tributes to which Mr. Brown refers in his diary, but Page 1 1 o there is extant this most interesting and informing letter which Mr. Nicolay wrote to a friend on August 26, i860: "Did you ever see a real, pretty miniature? I do not mean an ambrotype, daguerreotype, or photo- graph, but a regular miniature painted on ivory. Well, a Philadelphia artist (Brown, his name is) has just been painting one of Mr. Lincoln, which is both very pretty and very truthful — decidedly the best picture of him I have seen. It is about twice as large as a com- mon quarter-size daguerreotype or ambrotype, but so well executed that when magnified to life-size one can- not discover any defects or brush marks on it at all. I wish you could see it. It gives something of an idea of what a painter-- I mean a real artist — can do. It has been painted for Judge Read of Philadelphia, who has become so disgusted with the horrible carica- tures of Mr. Lincoln which he has seen, that he went to the expense of sending this artist all the way out here to paint him this picture, which will probably cost him some $300 — the price of the painting alone being $175. I had a long talk with the artist today. He says that the impression prevails East, that Mr. Lincoln is very ugly — an impression which the pub- lished pictures of him of course all confirm. Read, however, had an idea that it could hardly be so -- but was bound to have a good-looking picture, and there- fore he instructed the artist to make it good-looking whether the original would justify it or not. The artist says he came out with a good deal of foreboding that he would have difficulty in making a picture under these conditions. He says he was very happy when Page 1 1 1 on seeing him he found he was not at all such a man as had been represented, and that instead of making a picture he would only have to make a portrait to satisfy Judge Read. He will go back home as agreeably dis- appointed in Mr. Lincoln's manners, refinement and general characteristics, as in his personal appearance." In i860, John Sartain, ten years the senior of John Henry Brown, was perhaps the best known of American engravers. When the younger man returned to Phila- delphia Sartain at once undertook to copy in mezzo- tint the miniature he had painted on ivory, and this at the end of a month prompted the following letter from Brown to Nicolay: Phila Friday Sept 28 i860 "John G. Nicolay, Esq. "My Dear Sir: I presume you are wondering why you have not yet seen or heard anything of the steel engraving from my picture of Mr. Lincoln. "Mr. Sartain promised to have it completed within two weeks after the picture was placed in his hands, which was on last Monday three weeks ago. "Two days ago the first proof was placed in my hands for criticism. I suggested seme alterations which have been made. To-day I will again examine it with care, and if necessary will have such further corrections made as my judgment may suggest. In accordance with my promise to you I will not allow any copies to be issued until they meet my approbation. "Judge Read is in a nervous condition at Sartain's delay. He thinks the engraving good, and vented some copies yesterday, but as I am judge in this case, I would not consent. "As soon as the plate is ready for printing from, which I think will be tomorrow or on Monday next, copies will be sent to you without delay. "Please make my compliments to Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln. Page 1 1 2 I am dear sir, your friend and servant, J. Henry Brown. "P. S. Mr. Lincoln's friends here are in high spirits and full of hope." SartairVs mezzotint, reproduced in this place, was completed a day or two after Brown's letter to Nicolay was written, and had extensive distribution during the last weeks of the campaign. Later, when Lincoln grew a beard, the engraver superimposed whiskers on his plate, and prints from it in its final form are now much prized by collectors. Brown's miniature passed with the years into the possession of Robert Todd Lincoln and is now owned by his daughter. Its maker died in Philadelphia in 1891 in his seventy-third year. Page 1 1 3 Number XIX. AMBROTYPE TAKEN AT SPRINGFIELD ON AUGUST 13, 1850, PROBABLY BY PRESIDENT BUTLER. Me serve No. 29. Number XIX. AMBROTYPE TAKEN AT SPRING- FIELD ON AUGUST 13, 1860, PROBABLY BY PRESIDENT BUTLER. Meserve No. 29. This is one of the ambrotypes for which Lincoln sat on August 13,1 860, and the one used by Brown in painting his miniature. When the miniature was finished Lincoln gave this ambrotype and another taken at the same time to the artist. After Brown's death, his son sold it to William H. Lambert, the well-known Lincoln collector. It shows an expression somewhat rare in Lincoln's portrait, although one frequent in his face — "a look of patient melancholy which over- took him when weary, discouraged, or even uninter- ested. " The expression vanished at once when his thoughts or emotions were aroused. Page 1 1 7 Number XX. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINTED BY ALBAN JASPER CONANT AT SPRINGFIELD IN SEPTEMBER, 1860. NOW IN THE PH ILL IPSE MANOR HOUSE AT YONKERS, NEW YORK. Number XX. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINTED BY ALBAN JASPER CONANT AT SPRINGFIELD IN SEPTEMBER, 1860. NOW IN THE PHILLIPSE MANOR HOUSE AT YONKERS, NEW YORK. In 191 1, nearly half a century after the event, Alban Jasper Conant wrote a delightful account of the circumstances under which he painted the first of his many portraits of Lincoln. "It was the end of August, i860," he relates, "when William M. McPherson com- missioned me to go from St. Louis to Springfield, and paint Lincoln. McPherson was the chief pioneer pro- moter of early St. Louis. He founded Bellefontaine Cemetery, and Forest Park, and organized the Mis- souri Pacific Railroad, of which he was the first presi- dent. The Prince of Wales and his suite were to visit St. Louis in October, and the opening of the Agri- cultural and Mechanical Association Fair had been fixed for that time. To forestall Chicago, we had just originated the Western Academy of Art. I was its secretary, and we were to hold an exhibition in con- nection with the Fair. McPherson said it would be a good thing for me to hang a portrait of the new leader of the new Republican party. He knew Lincoln and approved of him, was himself a strong Unionist, and, I imagine not unmindful of the campaign value of such a portrait in St. Louis at that time. I was in the habit of doing what McPherson said in those days. So I packed up my gear and went. "Arriving at Springfield I repaired with all speed to the State House where Lincoln had his headquarters. The room he used was perhaps sixty feet long by about Page 121 twenty feet wide, and as I entered I caught my first sight of him standing by a table at the farther end surrounded by men with whom he was talking inter- estedly. I took a seat against the wall, rather more than half way down the room. As I waited surprise grew upon me. My notion of his features had been gained solely from the unskillful work of the photo- graphers of the period, in which harsh lighting and inflexible pose served to accentuate the deep, repellent lines of his face, giving it an expression easily mistaken for coarseness that well accorded with the prevalent disparagement of his character. But as he talked ani- matedly, I saw a totally different countenance, and I admitted to myself that his frequent smile was peculi- arly attractive. I determined to secure that expression for my portrait. "Across the room a young man was also sitting. From his appearance and manner I immediately con- cluded that he was of my ilk and bent on the same errand. While I was undergoing vexation at the pros- pect of his adding to the difficulty of my obtaining the sittings I desired, Mr. Lincoln approached, and I handed him the introductions and strong recommenda- tions with which Mr. McPherson had armed me. Lin- coln read them carefully. 'No,' he said gravely, shak- ing his head, ' it is impossible for me to give any more sittings.' As I urged upon him the important purpose for which the portrait was sought, and the distance I had come to secure it, the young man I had noticed approached and stood near us. He interrupted Lincoln, who began to deny me again, saying, 'Mr. Lincoln, you can give him my sitting for tomorrow. My stay Page 122 in Springfield is unlimited, and I can arrange for sit- tings later to suit your convenience. I should be glad to further this gentleman's work in that way. ' Such professional magnanimity appealed to Lincoln, and he agreed to sit to us together if that would do. So it was settled, and I thanked Mr. Lincoln and the young man. He was George Wright of New Haven, and but for him I should probably have gone away without the portrait, and cherishing a personal resentment against Lincoln, in addition to the popular prejudice in which I shared. "Long before ten next morning, we were both on hand at the State House. I set up my easel in the middle of the room and placed a chair for Mr. Lincoln about ten feet away. He was seated at a table writing, and at the same time dictating to Mr. Nicolay, his secretary. He leaned his head on his left hand and kept running the fingers through his long, unkempt hair. I fumed inwardly, impatient to get on with my work. Promptly on the hour, Lincoln rose, came over, and without a word threw his angular form into the chair, crossing his legs and settling back with a sigh, as though to a disagreeable ordeal. Immediately his countenance re- lapsed into impenetrable abstraction; the hard, sinister lines deepened into an expression of utter melancholy, almost despair. It was not the Lincoln I had resolved to paint -- not the genial, animated person of the day before, but instead the Lincoln of the newspapers. "At that first sitting my efforts were only partially successful in diverting his mind from the absorbing questions that overwhelmed him, obsessed with which he relapsed into the melancholy I desired to avert. I Page 123 was vexed also at the interruptions of visitors, who were constantly coming in. Though they aroused him to some degree of animation, they invariably spoiled his pose, so that I could not work. At the second sit- ting, in desperation, I placed a long bench just behind me, and requested that all visitors occupy it. The plan served to keep Lincoln in pose and helped to bring to his face some of the animation I desired. When the string of visitors failed, I knew I must keep his mind from brooding on the present if I would avert his abstracted look, and I soon found that leading him to talk of his past life was the best expedient. A ques- tion about his store-keeping experiences, his early life, his flat boat trips to New Orleans, or how he became a lawyer — any of these would do it. 1 Then my concern was to study his features, and I did so with an intensity that, before or since, I have never devoted to a sitter. The noble symmetry of his brow instantly reveaied itself to me, but it was not till years afterward that I saw some measure of the mentality back of it. His features were the most puzzl- ing that could well be imagined. His bushy, overhang- ing brows caused a famous sculptor to speak of his rather deep-set eyes as ' dark ' ; but close observation revealed them a heavenly blue, and when they were animated their expression was most captivating. Never was a countenance so flexible as his, nor capable of such changes of expression. The secret lay in his sensi- tive muscular control of his mouth. That sensitive mouth of his was the index of the mellow human sym- pathy of his disposition. He was acutely alive to distress in any form, and the cry of a child, particularly, would Page 1 24 arrest his attention, no matter what he was engaged upon. Several times when we were alone together, both working busily, I saw him stop and call to him, for a jocose remark and a handshake, some barefoot boy who had stolen up the stairs and through the half- open door was gazing in awe at the famous candidate. "When early in the second week of my stay in Springfield I announced the completion of my work, Lincoln came over, and, looking at the portrait, said: 'You are not going till this evening? I would like Mrs. Lincoln to see that. If you will let it remain here I will bring her at three o'clock. ' They came promptly, bringing with them Jesse K. DuBois and O. M. Hatch, friends of Mr. Lincoln. I uncovered the canvas for Mrs. Lincoln. 'That is excellent/ she said, 'that is the way he looks when he has his friends about him. I hope he will look like that after the first of November. ' Mr. DuBois and Mr. Hatch made similar statements. Later in the day I called at the Lincoln home to say good-by, accompanied by my little daughter of twelve, whom I had brought on the journey to keep me com- pany at the hotel. Mr. Lincoln followed us to the door, said good-by to her, and, as she passed out, gently detained me, asking with unaffected feeling: 'Is her mother living? 1 I answered that she was. 'I am so glad to know it, ' he said, 'somehow I had got the idea that she was orphaned, and I was afraid to ask about her mother lest I might hurt her feelings.' Conant's portrait of Lincoln, duly exhibited as originally planned in the Western Academy of Art at St. Louis, remained in the painter's possession until 1868, when he sold it to Captain James B. Eads. It Page 125 now hangs in the Phillipse Manor House at Yonkers, New York, a gift from the late Alexander Cochran Smith of that city, and is reproduced in this place. A manuscript at the back of the canvas reads as follows : "Believing that this sketch of Mr. Lincoln will possess in coming time seme historic value, I make the following statement. It was painted by myself from life, at Springfield, Illinois in the summer of 1S60 between the time of his nomination and election for the presidency. It is the only attempt I know to give Mr. Lincoln's social, genial expression ... I have retained it until now in the vain hope that the citizens of St. Louis would honor me with a commission for a full length, historic picture in which Mr. Lincoln's pre-eminently social and genial nature should be represented. And it is with much reluctance, and sorrow even, that I am compelled to part with it, which is mitigated only by the fact that it passes into the hands of my most esteemed and valued friend, Colonel James Eads. St. Louis, February iith, 1868. (Signed) A.J. Conant . ' ' Conant nc x er executed the "full length, historic picture" which was his cherished desire over a period of years. Nevertheless during the course of a long life he painted, either single-handed or with the aid of fellow artists, as many portraits of Lincoln as did Gilbert Stuart of Washington in an earlier time. One of these canvasses, which copies more or less faithfully the so-called Rice photograph of Lincoln taken in 1 864, hangs in the Walker Galleries in Minneapolis, and others are in various private collections. Conant was born at Chelsea, Vermont in 1821 and as an artist was mainly self-taught, although as a young man he was helped by occasional contacts in New York and Phila- delphia with Henry Inman and Thomas Sully, popular portrait painters of the period. "Watching these artists Page 126 at work/' he once declared, "was the only real art training I ever had." In 1880, Conant took up his residence in New York, where he made his home with a daughter until his death in December, 191 5 in his ninety-fifth year. Page 127 Number XXI. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINTED BY GEORGE FREDERICK WRIGHT AT SPRING- FIELD IN SEPTEMBER, 1860. NOW OWNED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. Number XXI. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINTED BY GEORGE FREDERICK WRIGHT AT SPRING- FIELD IN SEPTEMBER, 1860. NOW OWNED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. George Frederick Wright, a young portrait painter of New Haven, was another of the bevy of artists who flocked to Springfield in the summer of i860 to paint the Republican nominee. It has already been re- lated how he generously shared with Conant, a later comer, the sittings that had been accorded him by Lin- coln. Conant in the account from which we have quoted relates an amusing incident connected with the work of his fellow artist. He writes that when Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln came to view his own portrait they brought with them "the irrepressible Tad after whom trailed a little comrade whom he called Jim. Tad was every- where at once, being repeatedly recaptured by his mother, and waiting only a favorable diversion to be off again. I noticed with what interested pride Lincoln's eyes followed him about the room. While we were dis- cussing my work Tad again escaped and found Wright's unfinished portrait against the wall. Turning it partly around and peering under the cover, he called out: "Come here, Jim; here's another Old Abe.' Shocked at the child's impropriety before such dignitaries as DuBois and Hatch I affected not to hear it. But his father laughed outright and asked in a loud aside: 'Did you hear that, Conant? He got that on the street I suppose.' Wright's portrait was purchased by its subject and presented to his long-time friend William Butler, who Page 131 had acted as one of his campaign managers and who was himself chosen state treasurer of Illinois in the same election that brought Lincoln's elevation to the Presidency. When Butler died it was inherited by his daughter Salome, a stately dame who was long one of the leaders of Springfield society. The latter in turn bequeathed it to her nephew William J. Butler by whom it was sold to Edward W. Payne, a Springfield banker. It is now the property of the University of Chicago. The portrait shows a thoughtful yet confident Lincoln in sharp contrast with the Lincoln whom Wright was to paint in 1864. Page 1 3 2 '■.) * l " Number XXII. PHOTOGRAPH BY SAMUEL G. ALSCHULER TAKEN AT CHICAGO BETWEEN NOVEMBER 21 AND NO- VEMBER 26, 1860. MeserveNo. 33. Number XXII. PHOTOGRAPH BY SAMUEL G. ALSCHULER TAKEN AT CHICAGO BETWEEN NOVEMBER 21 AND NOVEMBER 26, 1860. Me- serve No. 33. There is significance in the fact that in a time and place when the rough-and-ready conditions of pioneer life prompted most of the men who faced them to grow beards Thomas Lincoln, the father of Abraham Lincoln, was always clean-shaven. And in this habit, as in others, the son during most of the years of his life followed the example set him by the father. Indeed, it was not until October, i860, that Abraham Lincoln for the first time began to grow a beard. It cannot be precisely determined in what measure this departure, promptly and vainly deprecated by many of his friends, was due to his correspondence with an eleven-year old girl, Grace Bedell; but the letter she wrote him a few weeks before his election must not pass unnoticed, and is here reproduced by permission of its present owner, Hon. George A. Dondero, representative in Congress from the Royal Oak, Michigan, district: "Westfield, Chatauqua Co., N. Y. October 15, i860 Hon. A. B. Lincoln, Dear Sir: My father has just come from the fair and brought home your picture and Mr. Hamlin's. I am a little girl only eleven years old, but want you should be President of the United States very much so I hope you won't think me very bold to write to such a great man as you are. Have you any little girls about as large as I am if so give them my love and tell her to write to me if you cannot answer this letter. I have got 4 brothers and part of them Page 135 will vote for you any way and if you will let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you ; you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President. My father is going to vote for you to and if I was a man I would vote for you to but I will try and get everyone to vote for you that I can I think that rail fence around your picture makes it look very pretty I have got a little baby sister she is nine weeks old and is just as cunning as can be. When you direct your letter direct it to Grace Bedell, Westneld Chatauqua County, New York. I must not write any more answer this letter right off. Good bye. Grace Bedell/' Lincoln's well-known love for and deep interest in children assured this prompt reply to his young cor- respondent's letter: "Springfield, Illinois, October 19, i860. Miss Grace Bedell: My dear little Miss: Your very agreeable letter of the 15th is received. I regret the necessity of saying I have no daughter. I have three sons — one seventeen, one nine, and one seven years of age. They, with their mother, constitute my whole family. As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece cf silly affectation if I were to begin it now! Your very sincere well-wisher, A. Lincoln." Grace Bedell, now Mrs. George N. Billings is still living at Delphos, Kansas, and at the ripe age of eighty-five years delights to recall her meeting with Mr. Lincoln when he was on his way to Washington to become President. The following statement pre- pared and signed by Mrs. Billings appeared in Lincoln Lore on February 23, 193 1 : Page 136 "Before President Lincoln's special train arrived at West- field, N. Y., Mr. Lincoln is said to have asked Hon. Geo. W. Pat- terson whose home was in Westfield, if he knew a family there named Bedell. Mr. Patterson replied in the affirmative where- upon Mr. Lincoln told him that he had received a letter from a little girl named Grace Bedell in which she advised him to wear whiskers, thinking it would improve his looks. He said, 'The character of the letter was unique, so different from the many self-seeking and threatening ones I was receiving every day that it came to me as a relief and a pleasure.' " I was at the station with my two sisters and a Mr. McCor- mack who had escorted us there when the President's train arrived. In my hand was a bouquet of roses which a neighbor had furn- ished so that I might give them to the President. The crowd was so large and I was so little that I could not see the President as he stood on the rear platform of his train making his address. But at the end of a short speech he announced, ' I have a little correspondent in this place, and if she is present will she please come forward?' ' Who is it ? — What is her name ? ' shouted a chorus of voices from the crowd. 'Grace Bedell,' answered Mr. Lincoln. "Taking my hand, the gentleman who had escorted us to the station made a lane through the crowd and led me to the low platform beside the train. The President stepped down from the car, shook my hand, and kissed me. 'You see,' he said, indicating his beard, ' I let these whiskers grow for you, Grace. ' "The crowd cheered and the President reentered his car. I was so surprised and embarrassed by the President's unexpected conduct that I ran home as fast as I could, dodging in and out between horses and buggies and once crawling under a wagon. Such was my confusion that I completely forgot the bouquet of roses that I was going to give the great man to whom I had offered such rare advice, and when I arrived home I had the stems, all that remained of the bouquet, still tightly clutched in my hand. "It seemed to me as the President stooped to kiss me that he looked very kind, yes, and sad. Grace Bedell Billings." Page 137 The first photograph we have of the bearded Lin- coln was taken under interesting conditions. On No- vember 21, i860, Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln journeyed to Chicago, where the husband by appointment met Vice President-elect Hannibal Hamlin and conferred with leading Republicans from all parts of the North. On this visit the Lincolns likewise met by appointment Joshua F. Speed and his wife. The two men keenly enjoyed a zestful recalling of the days when Speed was a storekeeper and Lincoln a fledgling lawyer in Springfield, and they had at the former's generous insistence for a time shared living quarters over his store, while, we are told, "the two women were equally happy shopping" for "Mrs. Lincoln intended to go to Washington wearing good clothes." It was also on one of the days of this Chicago so- journ that Lincoln at the instance of and accompanied by his friend Henry Q Whitney, a young lawyer who had traveled the circuit with him and later was to write a fine account of that phase of his career, visited the studio of Samuel G. Alschuler and sat for the photograph reproduced in this place. A score of years later, Whitney carried the print to the studio of C. D. Mosher, another Chicago photographer, probably for reproduction. However, he seems to have forgotten what he had done with it, for Herbert W. Fay, now custodian of Lincoln's Tomb, has recently recorded that rummaging through a dust-covered pile of dis- carded prints in the Mosher studio in the early 8o's of the last century he chanced upon what was to him a new and unusual photograph of Lincoln. "It showed," Mr. Fay relates, "a very short crop of beard, and never Page 138 having seen a picture of this period I considered it a prize. I showed it to Mosher and asked him to name the price. He said that it had been left by a man who was writing a story on Lincoln, but I could have it providing the owner did not call." The owner did not call, and in due course the first photograph of the bearded Lincoln became the prop- erty of Mr. Fay in whose possession it has ever since remained. Collectors without delay heard of this new Lincoln, and the requests that came to Mr. Fay for copies of it moved him to a new and more searching study of the original print. This study disclosed the name "Whitney" on the back of the photograph, thus finally and fully establishing its identity. Page 139 Number XXIII. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINTED BY JESSE ATWOOD AT SPRINGFIELD IN NOVEMBER, 1860. Number XXIII. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINT- ED BY JESSE ATWOOD AT SPRINGFIELD IN NOVEMBER, 1860. Jesse Atwood was a portrait painter of Philadelphia who prior to 1 860 had executed portraits of several of the Presidents — nine is the reputed number — among them the younger Adams, Taylor and Pierce. After the election of November, i860, he journeyed to Spring- field, and was able without difficulty to add Lincoln to his list of presidential sitters. The portrait which At- wood painted long remained in the family of the artist, but in time passed into the possession of Samuel W. Pennypacker, later governor of Pennsylvania. It is now owned by J. W. Young, an art dealer of Chicago. When in 1928 it was shown to the late Henry B. Ran- kin, who had passed sometime as a student in the office of Lincoln and Herndon, he declared that "it was to his mind the best Lincoln portrait painted from life, stressing the 'faraway look about the eyes' which other artists had failed to catch and the idealization lack of which, to his thinking, marred the likeness in other portraits." Later judges may be inclined to question Mr. Rankin's estimate of the Atwood canvas, but as the first portrait of the bearded Lincoln painted from life it claims a place of its own, and an important one, in the present record. Page 143 Number XXIV. BUST OF LINCOLN EXECUTED BY THOMAS D. JONES AT SPRINGFIELD, IN JANUARY, 1861. Number XXIV. BUST OF LINCOLN EXECUTED BY THOMAS D. JONES AT SPRINGFIELD, IN JANUARY, 1861. The second sculptor to be granted sittings by Lin- coln was Thomas D. Jones, then a resident of Columbus, Ohio. After the election of i860 he received a commission from Colonel R. M. Moore of that city to execute a bust of Lincoln, and the day after Christ- mas, accompanied by his patron, appeared in Spring- field armed with letters of introduction from Salmon P. Chase and Thomas Ewing. The story of what fol- lowed is set forth in an article written by the sculptor which appeared in the Weekly Union of Sacramento, California, on November 4, 1871. Jones records that Lincoln promptly granted the request for sittings, and then continues: " In a day or two my modeling stand and clay were set up in a room engaged at the St. Nicholas, where I was to receive a sitting of an hour daily from Mr. Lincoln in the forenoon. It was impossible for him to be regular or punctual — too many calls on him from all parts of the country. The work once begun, he be- came a subject of great interest, but a very difficult study. His early mode of life and habits of thought had impressed hard and rugged lines upon his face, but a good anecdote or story before commencing a sitting much improved the plastic character of his features . . . Soon after reaching Springfield, I attended one of Lincoln's evening receptions. It was there I really saw him for the first time to please me. He was sur- rounded by his nearest and dearest friends, his face Page 147 illuminated, or, in common parlance, lighted up. In height six feet four inches, and weighing one hundred and seventy-six pounds, he was physically an athlete of the first order "able to" lift with ease a thousand pounds, five hundred in each hand. . . . His head was neither Greek nor Roman nor Celt, for his upper lip was too short for that, nor a Low German. 'There are few such men in the world. The pro- file line of the forehead and nose resembled each other. General Jackson was one of that type of men. They have no depression in their forehead at the point called eventuality. The line of the forehead from the root of the nose to the hair above is slightly convex. Such men remember everything and forget nothing. Their eyes are not large, hence their deliberation of speech. Lin- coln was decidedly one of that class of men. Mentally he reasoned with great deliberation, but acted promptly as he did in all his rough and tumble encounters in the West. "We generally opened the ball in the morning with two or three anecdotes each, and then went on with our work in silence. Before the public Lincoln was a very grave and earnest man; in private, kind, modest and replete with wit and humor. He never told a story for its zanyism, but purely for good humor, illustration or ' adornment of his speech, ' as Rabelais would say. Not long after taking my first sitting of Lincoln he commenced preparing his addresses to be delivered in the different cities through which he was to pass from Springfield to Washington. His speeches or addresses were very deliberately composed, in my room. I sharpened all the Fabers he required. He gen- Page 148 erally wrote with a small portfolio and paper resting on his knee, with his published speeches lying beside him for reference. After completing one of his com- positions he would very modestly read it to me. At this time my studio was Lincoln's only retreat from the pursuit of applicants for office, where he could compose his addresses in peace." When considerable progress had been made on the bust, Mr. Jones relates: "I said to him, 'Mr. Lincoln, will you have the kindness to tell me what you think of the result thus far?' Then: 'I think it looks very much like the critter/ Those were his exact words, and very like him, for he was not known to flatter. "About two weeks before Lincoln left Springfield for Washington a deep-seated melancholy seemed to take possession of his soul. While James Buchanan, sitting like Cerberus at the gate, would neither do, nor let others act, South Carolina had already seceded, and other states (were) preparing to do the same damnable deed. The great problem with Lincoln at the time was, how to enforce the laws in the true spirit of the Constitution without the shedding of blood. During those two weeks he made not a single threat, apparently resigned to his fate, as a martyr prepared for the stake. The former Lincoln was no longer visible to me. His face was transformed from mobility into an iron mask . . . 'The day at length arrived when Lincoln was to take his departure for Washington. It was a dark, gloomy, misty morning, boding rain. The people as- sembled early to say their last good-bye to the man they loved so much. The railroad office was used as the Page 149 reception room. Lincoln took a position where his friends and neighbors could file by him in a line. As they came up each one took his hand in silence. The tearful eye, they tremulous lips and inaudible words was a scene never to be forgotten. When the crowd had passed him I stepped up to say good-bye. He gave me both his hands — no words after that. The train thundered in that was to bear him away, and Lincoln mounted the rear platform of one of the cars. Just at that moment Mrs. Lincoln's carriage drove up — it was raining. I pro- ferred my umbrella and arm, and we approached Lin- coln as near as we could for the crowd, and heard the last and best speech (he) ever delivered in Springfield. " The first of Jones' two busts of Lincoln — as will be later related he modeled a second one in 1864 — is now in the gallery of the New York Historical Society, which has kindly consented to its present reproduc- tion. It is a brooding, thoughtful work, which recalls in an arresting way the Lincoln of the First Inaugural, for it took final shape while he was laboring with that memorable document. Its sculptor was a picturesque personality and had an unusual career. Jones was born in 1808 in Oneida County, New York, and in early life was by turns a stone mason and marble cutter, practicing the latter trade in Cincinnati. About 1846, without instruction, he began the modeling of busts in wood, stone and marble, and soon became favorably known as a sculptor in Ohio and neighboring states, numbering among his sitters Clay, Corwin, Chase and other of the eminent men of his period. Lincoln cherished a warm regard for Jones, shortly before his death in 1865 recommending him for a COn- Page 1 50 sulate. A writer in one of the issues of the Magazine of Western History for 1886 describes the sculptor as "a genial, courtly gentleman of the old school who lacked the money-getting instinct. He seemed always," we are told, "in rather straitened circumstances, but his rare familiarity with Shakespeare, and his knowl- edge of distinguished men made him socially delight- ful." An artist friend who knew Jones in his earlier years in Cincinnati adds a few welcome touches to this picture: "A man of positive talent, but showed in his work the lack of early training and art educa- tion. He was entirely original, had a great love and admiration for the heroic and classic in art, and in looks, dress and action was always dramatic. His long hair and piercing eyes, over-shadowed by a broad brimmed hat, and the old Roman toga thrown over his left shoulder will ever be kindly remembered by those who had the pleasure and honor of his acquaint- ance or friendship." Jones died in 1881 in Cincinnati where he had passed his closing years. Page 151 Number XXV. PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT SPRINGFIELD BY C. S. GERMAN, PROBABLY ON JANUARY 13 OR 20, 1861. Meserve No. 35. Number XXV. PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT SPRING- FIELD BY C. S. GERMAN, PROBABLY ON JAN- UARY 13 OR 20, 1861. Meserve No. 35 Jones, the sculptor, relates that one morning dur- ing his stay in Springfield he accompanied Lincoln to a photograph gallery "to pose him for some pictures he desired to present to a very dear friend." Then and later Lincoln frequently chose Sunday morning as the most convenient time to fulfil appointments with photographers, and so it is probable that it was on Sunday, January 13 or Sunday, January 20, that with Jones to give advice he made the visit to the studio of C. S. German which yielded what must be fairly accounted one of the truest portraits of him ever made. At any rate, on January 26 he is known to have autographed a print from another negative taken at the same time which he gave to a friend. The portrait under consideration reflects Lincoln in sober mood, and it is an interesting fact that, despite his well-known fondness for a joke, few of the photo- graphs of him show a smile or the hint of one. Fred- erick H. Meserve, a discriminating student of photo- graphy in all its phases, advances a theory which can be reasonably accepted as explaining the lack of a Lincoln smile in his pictures. "At that stage of the art," Mr. Meserve points out, "an exposure of at least a minute was necessary in order to secure satisfactory results. This meant that the subject must keep still and preserve his expression, a thing very difficult to do. Photographers then had a head-rest, which con- sisted of a small vise, clamped to the back of the head, Page 155 so as to prevent the subject from changing position. This vice was attached to a stand, the base of which may be seen behind the leg in many old photographs. Although it was possible to keep the head steady, there was no way to preserve an expression of the face for the time required. This, I believe, in part accounts for the austerity of all the Lincoln pictures. It also may be observed that this trait of an unsmiling face is common to pictures of that period. To smile for so long in exactly the same way is so difficult that the effort is likely to end in a smirk. This would have been especially difficult in the case of Lincoln, for we can- not imagine a man of his temperament with more than a fleeting smile." Than the photograph here reproduced, there is no portrait of Lincoln which gives more appealing ex- pression to ' ' the tenderness of his nature — the steady kindness of the deep-set eyes." The drapery in the background of the picture, perhaps called into use by Sculptor Jones, is also visible in a negative now owned by Herbert Wells Fay, proof that the two photo- graphs belong to the same time and place. When they were taken Lincoln was selecting his Cabinet and daily meeting scores of eager, insistent placeseekers, and both give evidence of the strain under which he was working at that time. Nevertheless his Spring- field friends so highly regarded them that they chose a print from the Fay negative (Meserve No. 34) as the model for a painting in the Illinois State House. Page 1 56 Number XXVI. ETCHING BY THOMAS JOHNSON OF A PHOTO- GRAPH TAKEN AT SPRINGFIELD BY S. C. GERMAN IN JANU- ARY OR FEBRUARY, 1861. Meserve No. 36. XumberXXVl. ETCHING BY THOMAS JOHN- SON OF A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT SPRING- FIELD BY S. C. GERMAN IN JANUARY OR FEBRUARY, 1861. Meserve No. 36 The splendid etching by Thomas Johnson repro- duced in this place was based on a photograph by German, which was also used by Leonard Volk, the sculptor, in his studies of Lincoln. This photo- graph has been frequently attributed to Hesler, but that artist stated in old age that he never made a negative of the bearded Lincoln, and as copies of it have been found with the name German on the card, there is no doubt that it was made in Springfield by German either in January or early February, 1861. In fact it may have been the issue of one of the sittings for which, as above recorded, Jones, the sculptor, posed Lincoln. It is in many ways the most impressive por- trait of the President-elect that has been spared us, and, in its quiet self-mastery, recalls Charles A. Dana's well-known description: "With a smile as engaging as that of a woman, there was such a charm and beauty about his expression, such good-humor and friendly spirit looking from his eyes, that you never thought whether he was awkward or graceful; you thought what a kindly character this man has — how benevol- ence and benignity were combined in his appearance — how intelligence and goodness were combined in his character. " Page 159 Number XXVII. SKETCH OF LINCOLN MADE BY GEORGE P. A. HEALY IN WASHINGTON IN MAY, 1861. NOW IN THE LINCOLN COLLECTION OF HARRY MacNEILL BLAND. Number XXVII. SKETCH OF LINCOLN MADE BY GEORGE P. A. HEALY IN WASHINGTON IN MAY, 1861. NOW IN THE LINCOLN COLLEC- TION OF HARRY MacNEILL BLAND. The swift, vivid limning of Lincoln's face in his first days as President is here reproduced by per- mission of its present owner, Harry MacNeill Bland. On the back of the canvas is this inscription by the artist : "Drawn in Washington at one sitting, May, 1861. G. P. A. Healy." G. P. A. Healy, familiarly known in Chicago, which was long his home, as George Healy, was in his day the most eminent of all the painters who at one time or another had Lincoln for a sitter. The work for which he is best remembered is his "Webster's Reply to Hayne, " but he also enjoyed a great vogue in Europe, painting the Pope and many of the crowned heads of his era. Healy was a devoted follower of Douglas, and so, declares one acrid observer, "considered Lincoln as entirely beneath his notice. " Be this as it may it is to be regretted that he never made opportunity during Lincoln's lifetime for more than the hasty sketch given reproduction in this place, and which is unlike any ether work that ever came from Healy 's easel. He did not follow it in the sitting portrait which he painted after Lincoln's death, and which will be dealt with in another part of this record. Page 163 Number XXVIII. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINTED BY GEORGE HENRY STORY IN 1916 FROM SKETCHES MADE BY THE ARTIST IN WASHINGTON, IN JUNE, 1861. NOW OWNED BY ALBERT H. WIGGIN OF NEW YORK. Number XXVIII. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINTED BY GEORGE HENRY STORY IN 1916 FROM SKETCHES MADE BY THE ARTIST IN WASHINGTON, IN JUNE, 1861. NOW OWNED BY ALBERT H. WIGGIN OF NEW YORK. It was in November, 1859, tnat Story, then in his twenty-fifth year, went from his native New Haven to Washington, and set up his easel in a room rented him by Brady, the photographer, who promised to aid him in securing commissions for portraits. The association thus began proved a mutually helpful one, and when in the closing days of February, 1861, Lin- coln arrived in Washington to take office, Alexander Gardiner, who then represented Brady at the capital, asked the painter to come to the photographic studio and pose the President-elect for a photograph. "When I entered the room," Mr. Story wrote in 19 16, "Mr. Lincoln was seated in a chair wholly absorbed in deep thought, and apparently oblivious to his immediate surroundings. He did not even raise his eyes, nor did he give any sign of recognition to anything that was taking place about him. I said in an undertone to the operator: 'Bring your instrument here and take the picture. ' This was done, and Mr. Lincoln rose and left the room without a word." A photograph taken about this time and bearing the Brady imprint confirms Mr. Story's description of Lincoln's absorbed and preoc- cupied manner. It shows him seated in an arm chair with bent head, apparently in deep thought. In June, 1861, Mr. Story received a commission to paint a cabinet head of Lincoln, which he hesitated to Page 167 undertake unless the necessary sittings could be ob- tained for him. The President, when approached by the artist's client, said he could not spare the time, but it was finally arranged by John G. Nicolay, one of Lincoln's secretaries, that Mr. Story should enter the office during business hours, and observe the Pres- ident at work, without making demands on his time. "On three successive days," wrote Mr. Story fifty- five years later, "I quietly entered the President's office through Nicolay's room, and made pencil notes of my subject and mental observations of the changes in his countenance while he was in real life and under the influence of state affairs in the different interviews with his visitors. After each sitting I returned to my studio and worked my canvas with my sitter as vividly in mind almost as though he were in my actual pres- ence, and with the aid of photographs I completed the picture. " In 191 5, Mr. Story, returning to Washington in the late afternoon of a distinguished career, was surprised to find "no portrait of Lincoln in any of the public galleries or in any of the departmental buildings," which he visited. This discovery prompted him to return to the material he had gathered in 1861 and to paint two portraits of Lincoln. One of them was pur- chased by the late Mr. Edward Henry Harriman, who in March, 19 16, presented it to the National Gallery of Art at Washington. The second of the two portraits is now owned by Albert H. Wiggin of New York who permits its reproduction in this place. It has much to commend it to the Lincoln student. Mr. Story's later years were passed in New York, where be became a Page 168 member of the National Academy of Design, and for a considerable period served as curator of the depart- ment of paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He died in 1923 in his ninetieth year. Page 1 69 Number XXIX. PHOTOGRAPH. NAME OF PHOTO- GRAPHER UNKNOWN, TAKEN IN WASHING- TON PRIOR TO OCTOBER 3, 1861. Meserve No. 42. Number XXIX. PHOTOGRAPH. NAME OF PHOTO- GRAPHER UNKNOWN, TAKEN IN WASHING- TON PRIOR TO OCTOBER 3, 1861. Meserve No. 42. None of Lincoln's early friends had a more helpful influence in the shaping of his career than did Joshua F. Speed, who was a leading merchant of Spring- field when, in the spring of 1837, full of hope but poor in pocket, the whilom postmaster of New Salem came to the larger town to begin the practice of law. Speed invited the newcomer to share a room with him above his store, and for several years was the daily and nightly "confidant of Lincoln's always troubled heart. " When in 1840, Speed sold his store in Springfield and returned to his native Louisville, there was a fairly constant and always candid and sympathetic exchange of letters between them, and in the summer of 1841, Lincoln depressed in spirit because of his broken en- gagement with Mary Todd, visited Speed in Louisville, seeking during a stay of several weeks support and consolation in the companionship of his friend. Then it was that he met Mrs. Lucy G. Speed, the devout and large-hearted mother of his host and quickly came to hold her in affectionate and reverent regard. Lincoln's days in the Speed household did much to lift his spirits, and he returned to Illinois with grati- tude in his heart for all of its members, and carrying with him an Oxford Bible which Mrs. Speed, just before his departure, had presented to him. (There is a tra- dition in the Speed family that she had asked one of her daughters for it, explaining that she desired it for their guest and promising another in its place). Back Page 173 on the circuit, Lincoln on September 27, 1841, wrote Mary Speed, sister of Joshua, a letter in which he reviewed the incidents of his recent visit, and sent this message to his late hostess : 'Tell your mother that I have not got her present with me, but I intend to read it regularly when I re- turn home. I doubt not that it is really, as she says, the best cure for the blues, could one but take it accord- ing to the truth. " There was more impressive proof in after years that Lincoln retained grateful memories of Mrs. Speed's gift to him. In the fall of 1861 Joshua Speed was in Washington, and was asked by the President to carry one of his photographs to Mrs. Lucy Speed. James Speed, a younger brother of Joshua, whom Lincoln met in 1841 and whom in 1865 he made his attorney- general, stated in old age that Lincoln had a special sitting for the photograph given Mrs. Speed "because he wanted to send her a picture taken for the purpose. " On it he wrote this inscription : "For Mrs. Lucy G. Speed, from whose pious hand I accepted the present of an Oxford Bible twenty years ago. Washington, D. C, October 3, 1861. A. Lincoln. " And this gift had a sequel which throws light on Lincoln's religious views in his latter years. In the summer of 1864 Joshua Speed, again in Washington, was invited out to the Soldier's Home to spend the night with his old friend. Entering the President's room unannounced, he found him seated by a window, and intently reading his Bible. Page 174 "I am glad to see you so profitably engaged/ 1 said Speed. 'Yes,' 1 was the reply, "I am profitably engaged." "When I knew you in early life," continued Speed, "you were a sceptic, and so was I. If you have recovered from your scepticism, I am sorry to say I have not. " 'You are wrong, Speed," said the President, plac- ing his hand on his friend's shoulder, and gazing earn- estly into his face. "Take all of this book on reason that you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier man." First and last the photograph which Lincoln gave to Mrs. Speed has enjoyed a wide measure of popular favor. It was engraved by John Sartain, and Trues- dell in his "Engraved and Lithographic Portraits" lists twenty-five other reproductions of it. Page 175 Number XXX. BUST OF LINCOLN BY SARAH FISHER AMES EXE- CUTED AT WASHINGTON IN 1862. NOW IN THE LINCOLN COL- LECTION OF HARRY MacNEILL BLAND. Number XXX. BUST OF LINCOLN BY SARAH FISHER AMES EXECUTED AT WASHINGTON IN 1862. NOW IN THE LINCOLN COLLECTION OF HARRY MacNEILL BLAND. Sarah Fisher Ames, wife of Joseph Ames, a portrait painter of repute and quality, was herself a widely known figure in the Washington of the Civil War period. While serving as a nurse she had charge of one of the war hospitals at the capital, and so came to know Lincoln, in an intimate and friendly way. She was also an amateur sculptoress of a diligent and hope- ful sort, and the bust of Lincoln here reproduced was modeled from life probably in the second year of his Presidency. Busts of Lincoln by Mrs. Ames are also in the Senate gallery at Washington, and in the Mass- achusetts State House at Boston. She died in 1901, after a long and useful life, aged eighty-four years. Page 179 Number XXXI. PHOTOGRAPH BY ALEXANDER GARDNER TAKEN AT WASHINGTON ON JANUARY 24, 1863. Meserve No. 49. Number XXXI. PHOTOGRAPH BY ALEXANDER GARDNER TAKEN AT WASHINGTON ON JAN- UARY 24, 1863. Meserve No. 49. The signing of the Emancipation Proclamation on the opening day of 1863 prompted another insist- ent demand for photographs of the President, and to meet it on January 24 of the year named Lincoln granted an appointment to Alexander Gardner, who when Brady was absent at the front, represented him at the capital. Seven views, all seated, resulted from this appointment. One shows Lincoln leaning against a table with his right hand resting on a book; four represent him holding a manuscript in the right hand, with the left arm resting on a book on the table, and the other two, one of which is here reproduced, reveal him with hands folded and a closed book beside him. This series is the most arresting record that has come down to us of the President's outward seeming on the morrow of the act which made him the emancipator of millions. Page 183 Number XXXII. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY JAMES READ LAMB- DIN PAINTED FROM LIFE AT WASHINGTON IN MARCH, 1863. NOW OWNED BY OLIVER R. BARRETT OF CHICAGO. Number XXXII. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY JAMES READ LAMBDIN PAINTED FROM LIFE AT WASHINGTON MARCH, 1863. NOW OWNED BY OLIVER R. BARRETT OF CHICAGO. IN March, 1863, at the beginning of his third year in the Presidency, Mr. Lincoln granted sittings to James Read Lambdin, in his time a widely known artist who in old age could proudly declare that he had painted every President from John Quincy Adams to James A. Garfield. His portrait of Lincoln, after passing through many hands, is now owned by Oliver R. Barrett of Chicago, who has kindly consented to its reproduction in this place. It shows its subject at bust length against a brownish background and facing slightly to the left. On most occasions Lambdin was easy master of his craft, but the real Lincoln seems to have escaped him. Nevertheless he produced an im- pressive portrait which claims a major place in any Lincoln gallery. Lambdin was born in Pittsburgh in 1807 and had a long and interesting career. He began to carve and draw at the age of twelve, and in 1823 studied under Edward Miles in Philadelphia. The following year he was accepted as a student by Thomas Sully, but in 1826 returned to Pittsburgh where at the age of twenty he opened a museum "to acquaint the West with art. " In 1832 he moved his museum and family to Louisville, and for four years roved the South, numbering among his distinguished sitters Chief Justice John Marshall, then nearing the end of a long life. In 1837 Lambdin settled permanently in Philadelphia where he was Page 187 active in the affairs of the Artists 1 Fund Society and for twenty years following 1845 served as director of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Among other honors which came to him was appointment by Presi- dent Buchanan in 1858 as United States art commis- sioner. Besides his major efforts as a portrait painter Lambdin was an accomplished miniaturist, and his occasional miniatures are now eagerly sought by col- lectors. He died in Philadelphia on New Year's Day in 1 Number XXXIII. ENGRAVING BY JOHN SARTAIN OF PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY EDWARD DALTON MARCHANT PAINTED AT WASHINGTON IN 1863. NOW IN THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB IN PHILADELPHIA Number XXXIII. ENGRAVING BY JOHN SAR- TAIN OF PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY EDWARD DALTON MARCHANT PAINTED AT WASHING- TON IN 1863. NOW IN THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB IN PHILADELPHIA. In the opening months of 1868 Mr. Lincoln granted sittings to another Philadelphia artist, Edward Dalton Marchant, who for a time was a guest at the White House and whose interesting portrait of his host now hangs in the Union League Club of his adopted city. It is here reproduced from an engraving made of it by John Sartain. Marchant wrote in 1866 that due to Mr. Lincoln's swift changing moods he had found him the most difficult subject who had ever taxed his skill as an artist ; but there is much of the real Lincoln in his portrait which called forth wide and favorable comment when first exhibited, and which has stood the test of the years. Marchant was a native of Edgartown, Massachu- setts, born in 1806, who early chose painting as his vocation, and profiting by instruction from various painters of New York, in 1829 first exhibited at the Academy of Design in that city. He removed to the West in 1843, residing chiefly in Nashville, but in 1845 settled in Philadelphia, where he passed the re- mainder of his eighty-one years. In addition to his Lincoln his best-known works include portraits of John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay, that of the last named being an especially satisfying example of a skill and craftsmanship that rarely proved unequal to the task of the hour. Page iqi Number XXXIV. SKETCH OF LINCOLN WEARING A SHAWL. NOT FROM LIFE AND ARTIST UNKNOWN, BUT RECALLS ONE OF THE SUBJECT'S DAILY PRACTICES WHEN A RESIDENT OF THE WHITE HOUSE. Xumber XXXIV. SKETCH OF LINCOLN WEAR- ING A SHAWL. NOT FROM LIFE AND ARTIST UNKNOWN, BUT RECALLS ONE OF THE SUB- JECT'S DAILY PRACTICES WHEN A RESIDENT OF THE WHITE HOUSE. The inclusion of this sketch is a departure from the plan upon which the present work is based, but its selection is warranted by its unusual and inti- mate appeal to those for whom all that casts light on Lincoln's daily life in the White House has meaning. Herndon's familiar description of him in his earlier Springfield days applies to the portrait here repro- duced. "He was not a pretty man by any means" writes his long-time partner, "nor was he an ugly one; he was a homely man, careless of his looks, plain-look- ing and plain-acting. He had no pomp, display or dignity, so called. He appeared simple in his carriage and bearing .... Of a winter's morning he might be seen stalking and stilting towards the market- house, basket on arm, his old gray shawl wrapped around his neck, his little Willie or Tad running along at his heels, asking a thousand quick questions, which his father heard not, not even then knowing that Willie or Tad was there, so abstracted was he. "When he thus met a friend, he said that some- thing put him in mind of a story which he (had) heard in Indiana or elsewhere, and tell it he would, and there was no alternative but to listen. Thus, I say, stood and walked and looked this singular man. He was odd, but when that gray eye and face and every feature were lit up by the inward soul in fires Page 195 of emotion, then it was that all these apparently ugly features sprang into organs of beauty, or sunk themselves into a sea of inspiration that sometimes flooded his face. Sometimes it appeared to me that Lincoln's soul was just fresh from the presence of its Creator. " The old gray shawl of Springfield days had its successor during Lincoln's years in the White House. As the conflict between the sections swiftly assum- ed ominous proportions, it became the President's daily, often nightly, custom to go over to the military telegraph bureau that had been created in the War Department and read from beginning to end the des- patches from the various fronts. David Homer Bates in his "Lincoln in the Telegraph Office" relates that on these visits the President, invariably wore his tall hat and, when the season demanded, a shawl of gen- erous proportions, which he doffed or donned as suited his convenience. The sketch under consideration shows him leaving the White House for the afternoon or evening walk that was to afford him the latest news, good, bad or indifferent, from the Union armies and their commanders. And Noah Brooks, who was to have been Lincoln's secretary in his second term, relates how on one of these visits the President's well-timed intervention prevented an act of grave injustice to a deserving and hard-working officer. Through a misunderstanding, which, as was presently proved, wrongfully inferred a remissness that had no existence in fact, Captain Thomas T. Eckert, superintendent of the military tele- graph bureau, had gravely offended Secretary Stanton, Page 196 who at the close of a heated interview threatened him with instant dismissal. Then it was that the President, appearing unheralded and lingering for a moment in the doorway, heard some portion of the talk, and asked, "What's the trouble here?" When told, Brooks re- cords, that Eckert was about to be discharged for neg- lect of duty, Mr. Lincoln "expressed his amazement, and said that he had long been in the habit of going to Captain Eckert's office for news from the front, for en- couragement and comfort when he was anxious and depressed. He had gone there at all hours of the day and night," but "had never found the captain absent from his post of duty; and that he should be guilty of neglect of duty was simply incredible. The grim Sec- retary relaxed his attitude of stern reproach, and Cap- tain Eckert was directed to return to his post with the rank and pay of major. ... In due course of time Major Eckert was appointed assistant Secretary of War, and before he resigned his commission at the close of the war, he bore the rank and title of brevet briga- dier-general. " Page 197 Number XXXV. PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN TAKEN BY ALEX- ANDER AND JAMES GARDNER AT WASHINGTON ON NOVEM- BER 15, 1863. Meserve No. 59 Number XXXV. PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN TAKEN BY ALEXANDER AND JAMES GARD- NER AT WASHINGTON ON NOVEMBER 1 5, 1 863 . Meserve No. 59 Various dates have been suggested for the arrest- ing photograph of Lincoln here reproduced, but according to Noah Brooks, whose first-hand testimony no doubt must be accepted as final, it was taken on Sunday, November 15, 1863, four days before the de- livery of his famous address at Gettysburg and at a time when its final phrasing held a major place in its author's thoughts. Here is the story as told by Brooks in his book, "Washington in Lincoln's Time:" "One November day — it chanced to be the Sun- day before the dedication of the national cemetery at Gettysburg - - I had an appointment to go with the President to Gardner, the photographer, on Seventh Street, to fulfill a long standing engagement. Mr. Lin- coln carefully explained that he could not go on any other day without interfering with the public and the photographer's business, to say nothing of his liability to be hindered by curiosity-seekers and other seekers on the way thither. Just as we were going down the stairs of the White House, the President suddenly remembered that he needed a paper, and, after hurry- ing back to his office, soon rejoined me with a long envelop in his hand. When we were fairly started, he said that in the envelop was an advance copy of Edward Everett's address to be delivered at the Gettysburg dedication on the following Tuesday (Thursday). Draw- ing it out, I saw that it was a one-page supplement to Page 201 a Boston paper, and that Mr. Everett's address nearly covered both sides of the sheet. The President expressed his admiration for the thoughtfulness of the Boston orator, who had sent him this copy of his address in order that Mr. Lincoln might not traverse the same lines that the chosen speaker of the great occasion (had) laid out for himself. "When I exclaimed at its length, the President laughed and quoted the line, 'Solid men of Boston make no long orations, ' which he said he had met somewhere in a speech by Daniel Webster. He said there was no danger that he should get upon the lines of Mr. Everett's oration, for what he had ready to say was very short, or, as he emphatically expressed it, 'Short, short, short.' In reply to a question as to the speech having been already written, he said that it was written, 'but not finished.' He had brought the paper with him, he explained, hoping that a few min- utes of leisure while waiting for the movements of the photographer and his processes would give him a chance to look over the speech. But we did not have to wait long between the sittings, and the President, having taken out the envelop and laid it on a little table at his elbow, became so engaged in talk that he failed to open it while we were at the studio." The envelope to which Mr. Brooks refers is clearly visible in one of the other negatives taken at this time. The negative here reproduced in the course of time passed into the possession of M. P. Rice, by whom it was copyrighted in 1891. Prints from it have been frequently published, accompanied by the statement that the "negative was made in 1864, at the time the Page 202 President commissioned U. S. Grant lieutenant-gen- eral and commander of the armies of the Union, " and "with one of General Grant, was made in commemora- tion of that event." It would appear, however, that Rice had been in some way misinformed as to the origin of the photograph now associated with his name. Be this as it may, the Rice photograph for many years has been held in high regard by etchers and engravers. Truesdell lists not less than thirty-two lithographs, photogravures, etchings and wood engravings based upon it. Page 203 Number XXXVI. PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN TAKEN BY MAT- THEW B. BRADY AT WASHINGTON ON FEBRUARY 9, 1864. Me serve No. 85 Number XXXVI. PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN TAKEN BY MATTHEW B. BRADY AT WASH- INGTON ON FEBRUARY 9, 1864. Meserve No. 85 Matthew B. Brady, as already recorded, made a full third of the photographs of Lincoln that have come down to us. Not less than thirty-five times between i860 and 1865 he made and preserved nega- tives of Lincoln but none of the other thirty-four prints in the Brady gallery equal in fame or popularity the picture of the President here reproduced which resulted from sittings accorded the famous photographer in the afternoon of February 9, 1864. This is the Lincoln that greets us on the three-cent postage stamp and the five-dollar Federal Reserve note, and there is no sort of doubt that in other forms it has been repro- duced in greater numbers than all other portraits of the President. Francis Bicknell Carpenter, the artist, in his de- lightful and revealing book, "Six Months at the White House," tells when and how this photograph came into being. Carpenter arrived in Washington on Feb- ruary 4, 1864, for the purpose of painting "The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, " an epoch- making event which had fired the imagination and aroused the ambition of the then youthful painter. Carpenter, having sketched the positions he planned to have the members of the Cabinet occupy in his painting, informed Mr. Lincoln that he desired him in a certain position at the end of a table. Thus arose need for a likeness of the President which the artist could use in his work. Accordingly it was agreed that Page 207 the twain should visit Brady's gallery on Pennsylvania Avenue the afternoon of February 9. As they were setting forth from the White House Carpenter had the first of many proofs of Lincoln's unfailing interest in and instinctive kinship with com- mon folk. "The carriage," he records, "had been ordered and Mrs. Lincoln, who was to accompany us, had come down at the appointed hour dressed for the ride when one of those vexations, incident to all house- holds, occurred. Neither carriage nor coachman was to be seen. The President and myself stood upon the threshold of the door under the portico, awaiting the result of the inquiry for the coachman, when a letter was put in his hand. While he was reading this, people were passing, as is customary, up and down the prom- enade, which leads from the grounds to the War De- partment, crossing, of course, the portico. "My attention was attracted to an approaching party, apparently a country-man plainly dressed, with his wife and two little boys, who had evidently been strolling about, looking at the places of public interest in the city. As they reached the portico, the father, who was in advance, caught sight ... of Mr. Lin- coln, absorbed in his letter. His wife and the little boys were ascending the steps. The man stopped sud- denly, put out his hand with a 'hush' to his family, and after a moment's gaze, he bent down and whisp- ered to them: There is the President!' Then leaving them, he slowly made a half circuit around Mr. Lincoln all the while intently watching him. At this point, having finished his letter, the President turned to me and said, 'Well, we will not wait any longer for the carriage; it won't hurt you and me to walk down.' Page 208 'The country-man here approached very diffi- dently, and asked if he might be allowed to take the President by the hand; after which, 'Would he extend the same privilege to his wife and little boys?' Mr. Lincoln good-naturedly approached the latter, who had remained where they were stopped, and, reaching down, said a kind word to the bashful little fellows, who shrank close up to their mother, and did not reply. This simple act filled the father's cup full. 'The Lord is with you, Mr. President, ' he said reverently, and then, hesitating a moment, he added with strong em- phasis, 'and the people, too, sir; and the people too!' Carpenter further records that their walk of a mile or more "was made very agreeable and interesting to me by a variety of stories, of which Mr. Lincoln's mind was so prolific." Arrived at the Brady gallery, the President sat not only for the photograph later used by Carpenter in painting his picture, but also for a second photograph, reproduced in this place, which has been aptly called the Universal Lincoln, for it reflects in fuller measure than any other likeness of him the kindly yet compelling dignity which was part of the man. When in 191 1 Frederick H. Meserve pub- lished his invaluable collection of one hundred Lincoln photographs he selected this picture by Brady for a frontispiece, accompanying it with a copy of a letter he had received from Robert Lincoln, which reads as follows: .._ . x . , Chicago, March 30, 1895 60 Lake Shore Drive "Dear Mr. Meserve: " I have always thought the Brady photograph of my father, of which I attach a copy, to be the most satisfactory likeness of him. Very sincerely yours, "Robert Lincoln. " Page 209 Number XXXVII. PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN AND HIS SON TAD TAKEN BY MATTHEW B. BRADY AT WASHINGTON LATE IN 1863 OR EARLY IN 1864. Meserve No. 39. Number XXXVII. PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN AND HIS SON TAD TAKEN BY MATTHEW B. BRADY AT WASHINGTON LATE IN 1863 OR EARLY IN 1864. Meserve No. 39 There have been sharp differences of opinion as to the date of the famous and well-loved photo- graph of Lincoln and his son here reproduced, but internal evidence clearly indicates that it was taken late in 1863 or early in 1864. One proof of the accuracy of this dating is the manner in which in the year 1864 Lincoln parted his hair. Prior to that year all of the portraits of him show his hair parted on the left side, but in 1864 he chose, for one reason or another, to comb it from the right side. Perhaps a dozen photo- graphs taken during 1864 show this arrangement, but early in 1865 his hair is again parted on the left side. This is convincing evidence that the photograph under consideration was taken in 1864. We owe to Robert Lincoln an intimate and welcome account of the cir- cumstances under which it came into being. "Upon the occasion of a sitting before Mr. Brady, " he writes, "the President was accompanied by his favorite son. While waiting in the studio Mr. Lincoln picked up an album of Brady's celebrated pictures and was show- ing them to Tad. So impressed was Brady by the pose that he induced them to remain as they were while he took their picture." This likeness of father and son for seventy years has had its tender if homely appeal for the unnum- bered millions who honor the name of Lincoln. Car- penter when he had finished his Emancipation Procla- Page 2 1 3 mation canvas made it the basis for a painting of the Lincoln family, and Truesdell lists forty-three repro- ductions of it in various mediums. This is as it should be, for Thcmas Lincoln, better known as Tad, because of a curious impediment in his speech which made it difficult for him as a child to pronounce his own name, holds a place of his own among the historic boys of America. Noah Brooks describes him as "the irresist- ible spirit of fun and mischief — a big-hearted and fresh- faced youngster, ' ' who ' ' when he went away from the White House, after his father's tragic end, carried with him the same boyish frankness and sim- plicity that he took into it. His father/ 1 Brooks adds, "took great interest in everything that concerned Tad, and when the long day's work was done, and the little chap had related to the President all that had moved him or had taken up his attention during the day-light hours, and had finally fallen asleep under a drowsy cross-examination, the weary father would turn once more to his desk, and work on into the night, for his cares never ended. Then, shouldering the sleeping child, the man for whom . . . good men and women nightly prayed took his way through the silent corri- dors and passages to his boy's bed-chamber. " Following his father's death Tad Lincoln was taken abroad by his mother, and for several years was at school or studying under private tutors in England and Germany. In the spring of 1871 mother and son returned to America and took up their residence in Chi- cago. There Tad soon fell ill, and after much suffering passed from life on July 15, 1871, aged nineteen years. He now sleeps by the side of his father at Springfield. Page 214 Number XXXVIII. PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN TAKEN BY THOMAS WALKER, PHOTOGRAPHER TO THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT, AT WASHINGTON IN MAY, 1864. Meserve No. 88. A umber XXXVIII. PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN TAKEN BY THOMAS WALKER, PHOTOGRA- PHER TO THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT, AT WASHINGTON IN MAY, 1864. Meserve No. 88 The photograph here reproduced, made in May, 1864, by Thomas Walker, long photographer of the Treasury Department, has a double interest for the Lincoln student. It clearly records a physical defect not apparent in other likenesses of the President, and it was taken during the most critical period in his political fortunes. Herndon observes that "the look of gloom and sadness so often noted in descriptions of his partner's countenance' ' was more or less accentu- ated by a peculiarity of one eye, the pupil of which had a tendency to turn or roll slightly toward the upper lid, whereas the other one maintained its normal posi- tion, equidistant between the upper and lower lids," a peculiarity plainly in evidence in the Walker photo- graph. Again, Dr. Milton H. Shutes in his informing "Lin- coln and the Doctors" remarks upon the fact that Lincoln's left eye turned up at times. "If this was a true squint," writes Dr. Shutes, "he must have suf- fered various discomforts from it, and as such, it would prove to be a definite factor in contributing to and pre- cipitating minor attacks of depression. It contributed, with his drooping lids, to give him his pronounced facial expression of sadness and woe. . . . The ap- parent tilting upward of Lincoln's left eye can be ex- plained by the edge of the left lower lid sagging below the level of the edge of the right lower lid, thus revealing Page 2 1 7 more of the white of that eye below the cornea or iris covering. This gives the impression that the pupil or the iris of the left eye is higher than that of the right, whereas the two pupils may actually be in perfect horizontal and vertical alignment permitting comfort- able normal single vision. If that deviation upward was a permanent error, it was so marked that one must wonder why Lincoln did not complain more often of seeing double, especially during the strain of the Presi- dency. All things considered, I am strongly inclined to the theory that the Lincoln 'squint' was more ap- parent than real. " When the Walker photograph was made in May, 1864, the fortunes of the Union were still trembling in the balance ; there were sharp dissensions between radi- cal and conservative leaders of the Republican Party, which found expresson in the nomination of Fremont at a hybrid convention in Cleveland; the unfriendly and the timid alike predicted disasters of divers sorts if the President, as they styled it, "were forced upon the people," and there were troubled hours in the opening months of 1864 when Lincoln himself doubted if he would be nominated, or, if he was renominated, would command success at the polls. Colonel Alexander K. McClure relates that calling at the White House on the eve of the Baltimore convention he found the President deeply concerned as to the action of that body. "Don't borrow trouble, Mr. President; your nomination is a foregone conclusion, " was McClure's confident reas- surance. 'You may be right," said Lincoln with a smile, "but I can not forget that the convention that nominated me four years ago was for another man." Page 218 The shallows, however, murmur when the deeps are dumb. McClure's prediction had quick confirma- tion, and when Lincoln heard that the National Union convention had made him its nominee on the first ballot, 507 out of 529 delegates voting for him, he no longer doubted that the people were with him. " I do not allow myself to suppose, " he said, "that they have concluded that I am either the greatest or best man in America, but rather they have concluded that it is not best to swap horses while crossing a stream/' The people, indeed, refused to swap horses while crossing a stream. With Grant incurring heavy losses and no apparent gains in Virginia, there were black days in July and August for friends of the Union, but early September brought news from Sherman of the fall of Atlanta, and thereafter the tide ran steadily in favor of Lincoln. In November he received the electoral vote of every Northern state except New Jersey. Pase 2i< Number XXXIX. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINTED FROM LIFE IN 1864 BY SAMUEL B. WAUGH. NOW OWNED BY WHARTON SINKLER OF ELKINS PARK, PENNSYLVANIA. Xumber XXXIX. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINT- ED FROM LIFE IN 1864 BY SAMUEL B. WAUGH. NOW OWNED BY WHARTON SINKLER OF ELKINS PARK, PENNSYLVANIA. This portrait of Lincoln painted in 1864 by Samuel B. Waugh is here reproduced by consent of its present owner, Wharton Sinkler, of Elkins Park, Penn- sylvania. A second portrait of Lincoln by Waugh now hangs in the gallery of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Born in Mercer, Penn- sylvania, is 1 8 14, Waugh in his youth was taught draw- ing by J. R. Smith of Philadelphia, and later without a teacher studied the works of the old masters in Italy, France, and England. During his active years as a portrait painter he lived and worked mainly in Phila- delphia, where he was at one time president of the Artists 1 Fund Society. He was also an honorary mem- ber of the National Academy of Design in New York. He died in 1885 in Philadelphia. His son, Frederick Judd Waugh, has achieved success as a painter of seascapes. Page 223 Number XL. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY WILLIAM COGSWELL. NOW IN THE WHITE HOUSE. PAINTED IN CHICAGO IN 1864 FROM FIRST-HAND SKETCHES MADE BY THE ARTIST WHEN VISITING WASHINGTON. Number XL. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY WIL- LIAM COGSWELL, NOW IN THE WHITE HOUSE. PAINTED IN CHICAGO IN 1864 FROM FIRST- HAND SKETCHES MADE BY THE ARTIST WHEN VISITING WASHINGTON. In 1864 William Cogswell, a young artist of Chicago, during a short sojourn in Washington, through the kindly offices of old friends of Lincoln, was permitted to visit the White House and make sketches of the President while the latter was attending to his cus- tomary duties — a privilege, as the present record shows, granted to other artists. Upon his return to Chicago he began a full-length portrait based on the sketches he had made in Washington. He was still at work on his canvas when news reached him that Con- gress had appropriated $3,000 for a portrait of Lincoln to be selected from competition. Accordingly, Cogswell having completed his canvas, sent it to Washington for exhibition and entry in the competition authorized by Congress. Thirteen portraits in all were submitted, but that by Cogswell was preferred by the judges, and in due course sent to the White House, where it has hung for the past seventy years. The Cogswell portrait shows Lincoln as the President. He stands full figure on the porch of the White House, his tall hat and cloak laid carelessly on a chair and in his hand a scroll. The dome of the Capitol is seen in the distance, "thus associat- ing the figure with the legislative and the executive departments of our Government, and displaying in this way the full significance of the Presidency." A Page 227 friend of Cogswell is authority for the statement that while the dozen other portraits entered in competition included one by George P. A. Healy all "were of the conventional type and lacked the fine conception of Mr. Cogswell." Born at Fabius, New York, in 1819, and as an artist largely self-taught, Cogswell at different periods prac- ticed his calling in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and St. Louis. His portraits of General Grant and Chief Justice Chase are in the Capitol at Washington, and President McKinley was also one of his sitters. Cogs- well passed his last years in California, dying in 1903 at Pasadena in that state. Page 228 Number XLI. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN PAINTED BY THOiMAS BUCHANAN READ AT WASHINGTON IN 1864. NOW OWNED BY C. H. RUNNING OF COLUMBUS. OHIO. Number XLI . PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN PAINTED BY THOMAS BUCH- ANAN READ AT WASHINGTON IN 1864. NOW OWNED BY C. H. RUNNING OF COLUMBUS, O. The impressive portrait of Lincoln here reproduced from an unretouched photograph is believed to have been painted in 1 864 by Thomas Buchanan Read, the poet and artist, and has had an unusual and in- teresting history. During the Civil War Read served on the staff of General Lew Wallace, and was with that officer when in the summer of 1 864 at the head of 5800 men he fought the battle of Monocacy against a greatly superior force under General Jubal A. Early, saving the capital from a Confederate raid. A few days after this battle President and artist met as chance guests under the same roof, near Wash- ington, when according to a tradition now apparently well-established, Read in a short hour's sitting sketched Lincoln's head on a wooden panel eight inches in width and ten inches in length. The following day the artist presented this sketch to his own and Mr. Lincoln's host of the moment. It was never exhibited by its owner, and in the course of time passed into the pos- session of members of his family who lived in Ken- tucky. There the portrait was stored in a trunk for thirty-eight years, and then became the property of an art and antique dealer of Cincinnati, who in 1830 sold it to its present owner, C. H. Running of Colum- bus, Ohio. It was painted with swift but sure brush. The result is a likeness of power and authority which is justly entitled to a high place in any Lincoln gallery. Page 231 Read was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania in March, 1822, and at an early age became a protege of Nicholas Longworth, then Cincinnati's wealthiest citizen. Aid from Longworth made possible his long and thorough training as a painter on both sides of the Atlantic. Thereafter he lived mainly in Europe, but now and again made long visits to America, dur- ing which Cincinnati was his chief place of sojourn. Examples of his quality as an artist are in the Metro- politan Museum of New York, the Peabody Institute of Baltimore and other public and private collections. He also won wide favor as a maker of verse, and, after Julia Ward Howe's "The Battle Hymn of the Re- public," his stirring and dramatic "Sheridan's Ride," was the best known poem produced by the Civil War. Lincoln was fond of Read's poetry and is said to habit- ually have carried in his pocketbook a copy of his "The Patriot's Oath. " Read died in New York City in May, 1872, at the early age of fifty. Page 232 Number XLI I. BUST OF LINCOLN BY THOMAS D. JONES EXE- CUTED AT WASHINGTON IN 1864. NOW OWNED BY WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST. Number XLll. BUST OF LINCOLN BY THOMAS D, JONES EXECUTED AT WASHINGTON IN 1864. NOW OWNED BY WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST. The sculptor Jones passed much time in Washing- ton during the Civil War period and in 1864 exe- cuted a second bust of Lincoln, an in every way admir- able work which he presented to his friend and fellow artist, Addison T. Richards, then and afterward secre- tary of the National Academy of Design in New York. From Richards it passed in 1890 to William Milne Grinnell and later to Hiram Burlingham, both of New York. Since November, 1933, it has been owned by William Randolph Hearst. As stated elsewhere, Lin- coln keenly enjoyed Jones's company and conversation, and with delight frequently repeated some of the sculp- tor's best stories. One of those which the President passed on to Carpenter, the painter, had to do with General Scott of whom Jones once made a bust. "Hav- ing a fine subject to start with," said Lincoln, "he (Jones) succeeded in giving great satisfaction. At the final sitting he attempted to define and elaborate the lines and markings of the face. The General sat patiently; but when he came to see the result, his countenance indicated displeasure. 'Why, Jones, what have you been doing?' he asked. 'Oh,' rejoined the sculptor, 'not much, I confess, General; I have been working out the details of the face a little more this morning.' 'Details?' exclaimed the General warmly; 'damn the details! Why, man, you are spoiling the bust!" Page 235 Number XLIII. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINTED FROM LIFE BY FRANCIS BICKNELL CARPENTER AT WASHINGTON IN 1864. NOW OWNED BY THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB OF NEW YORK. Number XLUl. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINTED FROM LIFE BY FRANCIS BICKNELL CARPEN- TER AT WASHINGTON IN 1864. NOW OWNED BY THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB OF NEW YORK. The portrait of Lincoln by Carpenter here repro- duced was a by-product of that artist's prepara- tion for and labors on his larger canvas — "The First Signing of the Emancipation Proclamation." In his "Six Months at the White House 1 ' Carpenter sets forth at great length the story of how he conceived and executed his depiction of the supreme event of the Civil War. He tells how the President extended him a warm welcome when in February, 1864, he arrived in Washington, armed with letters of introduction from friends in New York, and generously promised him every possible aid in working out his ideas. "It is not too much to say," Carpenter continues," that the enthusiasm in which the work was conceived flagged not to the end. The days were too short for labor upon it. Lighting at nightfall the great chandelier of the state dining-room, which was finally assigned me for a studio, the morning light frequently broke in upon me still standing, pencil or palette in hand before the immense canvas, unable to break the spell that bound me to it. "My access to the official chamber was made nearly as free as that of the private secretaries, unless special business was being transacted. Sometimes a stranger, approaching the President, with a low tone would turn an inquiring eye toward the place where I sat, absorbed frequently in a pencil sketch of some object Page 239 in the room. This would be met by the hearty tones of Mr. Lincoln: "Oh, you need not mind him: he is but a painter. ' There was a satisfaction to me, differing from that of any other experience, in simply sitting with him. Absorbed in his papers, he would become unconscious of my presence, while I intently studied every line and shade of expression in that furrowed face. In repose it was the saddest face I ever knew. There were days when I could scarcely look into it without crying. During the last days of the battles of the Wilderness he scarcely slept at all. Passing through the main hall of the domestic apartment on one of these days, I met him, clad in a long morning wrapper, pac- ing back and forth a narrow passage leading to one of the windows, his hands behind him, great black rings under his eyes, his head bent forward upon his breast — such a picture of the effects of sorrow, care and anxiety, as would have melted the hearts of the worst of his adversaries. " Paul M. Angle, long an appreciative student of a great career, somewhere aptly observes that "Lincoln was always doing something for somebody, " and a story Carpenter tells of his parting with the President in the last days of July, 1864, confirms this statement. The artist had finished his picture of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and it had been placed on public exhibition in the East Room of the White House, where for two days it was viewed by thousands of admiring visitors. Towards the close of the second day, writes the artist, "intending to have the canvas taken down and rolled up during the night for trans- portation to New York, I watched for an opportunity Page 240 to say a last word to Mr. Lincoln previous to his leav- ing for the Soldiers' Home, where the family was stay- ing. At four o'clock the carriage drove up to the door. . . . Knowing that the President would soon appear, I stepped out under the portico to wait for him. Pres- ently I caught sight of his unmistakable figure stand- ing halfway between the portico and the gateway lead- ing to the War Department, leaning against the iron fence evidently having been intercepted on his way there from the War Department, by a plain-looking man who was giving him, very diffidently, an account of a difficulty which he had been unable to have rec- tified. "While waiting, I walked leisurely to the Presi- dent's side. He said very little to the man, but was intently studying the expression of his face while he was narrating his trouble. When he had finished, Mr. Lincoln said to him, 'Have you a blank card?' The man searched his pockets, but finding none, a gentle- man standing near, who had overheard the question, came forward and said: "Here is one, Mr. President.' Taking the card and a pencil, Mr. Lincoln sat down upon the low stone coping and wrote an order to the proper official to 'examine this man's case.' While writing this, I observed several persons passing down the promenade smiling at what they thought was the undignified appearance of the head of the nation, who, however, seemed utterly unconscious, either of any impropriety in the action or . . . that there could be any breach of etiquette or dignity in the manner of an honest attempt to serve or secure justice to a citizen of the republic, however humble he might be. Page 241 "Rising to his feet he handed the man the card with a word of direction, and then turning to me said : 'Well, Carpenter, I must go in and take one more look at the picture before you leave us. ' So saying, he ac- companied me to the East Room, and sitting down in front of it, remained for some time in silence. Then: 'There is little to find fault with; the portraiture is the main thing, and that seems to me absolutely per- fect. It is as good as it can be made. I believe I am about as glad over the success of this work as you are. ' And with a cordial ' good-bye ' grasp of the hand Presi- dent and painter separated." Francis Bicknell Carpenter, whose name is thus indissolubly associated with that of Lincoln, was born at Homer, New York, in 1830, began to sketch while still a lad, and after a short period of study under San- ford Thayer, an artist then resident in Syracuse, set up as a portrait painter first in his native town and then in New York City. A full-length portrait of President Millard Fillmore established his reputation and as- sured him election as an associate of the National Academy of Design. Thereafter for many years he en- joyed a large measure of popularity. His "Emanci- pation Proclamation," which brought him into inti- mate contact with and won him the friendship of Lin- coln, now hangs in the Capitol at Washington, while the list of his individual sitters includes four Presidents and many eminent statesmen, divines and men of letters. It was the present writer's privilege to know Carpenter in old age, and he retains delightful memories of his personal charm and instinctive good-will for all men. He died in New York, after a long illness, in May, 1900. Page 242 Number XLIV. FULL-LENGTH PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINTED BY ALBIAN H. BICKNELL IN 1864. NOW IN THE STATE HOUSE AT BOSTON. NumberXLW. FULL-LENGTH PORTRAIT OF LIN- COLN PAINTED BY ALBIAN H. BICKNELL IN 1864. NOW IN THE STATE HOUSE AT BOSTON. The portrait here reproduced, painted on com- mission from the Commonwealth of Massach- usetts, was based upon sketches made in Washington, but was completed in Boston, Mrs. Lincoln furnish- ing from the President's wardrobe the suit of clothes worn by a model carefully chosen because of his phy- sical resemblance to the artist's subject. The result was a portrait, painted with competent craftsmanship, which has dignity and authority to commend it. Born in 1837 and dying in 191 5, Bicknell during an active career as a painter covering more than half a century, executed portraits of many of the distinguished and successful men of his period and section, Daniel Web- ster and Horace Mann among them, but none with more satisfying results than the likeness of Lincoln which he painted in early manhood. Page 245 Number XLV. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY GEORGE FREDERICK WRIGHT PAINTED AT WASHINGTON IN THE SUMMER OF 1864. NOW OWNED BY THE ESTATE OF THE LATE PERCY A. ROCKE- FELLER. Number XLV. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINTED BY GEORGE FREDERICK WRIGHT AT WASH- INGTON INTHE SUMMER OF 1864. NOW OWNED BY THE ESTATE OF THE LATE PERCY A. ROCKEFELLER. The allegorical portrait here reproduced was painted by George Frederick Wright in 1864, and repre- sents Lincoln "alone in a great storm holding together thirteen strands of a ship's hawser, symbolic of the thirteen original states and the ship of state." It was owned for many years by Mrs. James Campbell of Mystic, Connecticut, whose father had purchased it from the artist. Mrs. Campbell sold it in 1904 to John Stanton Palmer, and it hung for more than a decade in the public library at Westerly, Rhode Island. It is now owned by the estate of the late Percy A. Rocke- feller. A second portrait of Lincoln which Wright painted in 1864 for General Horatio G. Wright is in the collection of William Randolph Hearst. Wright had a colorful career as man and artist. He was born in Washington, Connecticut in 1828, and early developed a marked aptitude and love for paint- ing. His parents had their own plans for his education, and as these were in conflict with the son's ideas, he left home while still in his teens, found employment in the nearby town of Wallingford, and in his leisure hours used the barn of his employer as a studio. Next he spent several years in Hartford, where he served as curator of the Wadsworth Athenaeum and had a hand in the founding of the Hartford Art Society con- nected with it. Still later he studied under Daniel Page 249 Huntington in the life class of the National Academy of Design in New York, but in 1858 returned to Hart- ford where for five years he was engaged principally in portrait painting. Wright went abroad in 1858 and for a year and a half studied in Germany with Albert Graefle, court painter in Baden, and with other eminent artists. There followed a short sojourn in Rome, but the late summer of i860 found him in Springfield, where he received from the State of Illinois a commission to paint its former governors — twelve of these portraits now hang in the state house at Springfield — and secured sittings for his first portrait of Lincoln. A few months later at Belleville in the same state he met and courted his future wife, Elina, the accomplished daughter by a French mother of Count Muzzarelli, a stout champion of freedom, who banished from his native Tuscany for his political activities in the Revolution of 1848, led a colony of his countrymen first to Tennessee, then to Missouri, and finally to Illinois. They were married in 1866, and ere long settled in Hartford where the husband until his death in 1881 successfully practiced his calling. Twenty of his portraits of the governors of Connecticut now hang in the state library building at Hartford. His portraits painted from life include one of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy under Lin- coln, and another of Dr. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet founder of the American School for the Deaf. Mrs. Wright was also an artist of unusual gifts, and for many years before her death in 19 19 was a teacher of painting and languages in Hartford. She knew many of the lead- ing men of the Civil War period and more than one Page 250 dramatic incident had a place in her long life of eighty- two years. She had heard John Brown of Ossawatomie discuss his plans with her slavery-hating father. Again, as a passing resident of Minnesota she was present at the Sioux massacre at Stillwater during the uprising led by Chief Little Crow, and delighted in old age to recall that she was the first to give the alarm of the approach of the Indians by way of the Mississippi River. Page 2 5 1 Number XLVI. FULL-LENGTH PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY WIL- LIAM F. K. TRAVERS BEGUN IN WASHINGTON IN THE FALL OF 1864 AND COMPLETED THE FOLLOWING SPRING AT FRANK- FORT-ON-MAIN. NOW OWNED BY THE ESTATE OF THE LATE PERCY A. ROCKEFELLER. Number XLVI. FULL-LENGTH PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY WILLIAM F. K. TRAVERS BEGUN IN WASHINGTON IN THE FALL OF 1864 AND COMPLETED THE FOLLOWING SPRING AT FRANKFORT -ON -MAIN. NOW OWNED BY THE ESTATE OF THE LATE PERCY A. ROCK- EFELLER. The full-length portrait here reproduced, declared by Ward H. Lamon, its subject's trusted friend and partner, "the most lifelike picture of Mr. Lincoln I have ever seen on canvass,' was painted under un- usual circumstances by William F. K. Travers, a young artist hailing from Frankfort-on-Main. Travers, born in 1828, was the son of a portrait painter of local re- nown in Germany who had been a soldier under Blucher in the Waterloo campaign. The son received a military education and also inherited his father's talent for portraiture. In the fall of 1864 he arrived in New York resolved upon enlistment in the Union Army. He was enrolled soon after landing and sent to Governor's Island, but on account of pulmonary affection was re- jected by the medical examiners as unfit for service in the field. Keenly disappointed young Travers made his way to Washington, and there conceived the idea of paint- ing the portrait of President Lincoln. Those to whom he spoke on the subject regarded his plan as an im- practicable one, and gave him no encouragement. He refused, however, to admit defeat, and one day meeting Lincoln on the street he introduced himself, told his story and made a strong appeal to the Presi- dent to grant him sittings for the desired portrait. He informed the President of the disappointing outcome Page 255 of his efforts to enter the Union Army, and his present wish to paint a portrait that would permanently iden- tify him with a cause he had not been able to serve in other ways. Touched by the man's earnestness, Lin- coln made an appointment for a sitting. A little later he sat for an hour to Travers, and by his droll stories set the young German quite at his ease. There were other sittings in the weeks that followed. Then Travers returned to Germany, and not long after Lincoln's assassination finished his portrait in his studio at Frankfort. There it was seen, admired and purchased by Wil- liam P. Webster, soon after his appointment in 1869 as United States consul at Frankfort. The portrait hung in the consulate until the spring of 1876, when its owner sent it with other paintings to the Centen- nial Exhibition at Philadelphia, where when displayed in Memorial Hall it attracted much attention. It is of record that there Mrs. Lincoln seeing it for the first time, "was so overcome by its lifelike appearance that she fainted and was carried from the hall. " Mr. Webster died in 1877 and his heirs sold the portrait to Albert Berger, a veteran of the Civil War, from whom in 1907 it passed into the hands of George Prince, a well- known photographer who at different times practiced his art in Washington, New York and other cities. It is now owned by the estate of the late Percy A. Rockefeller. It has draughtsmanship, accuracy and sympathetic understanding to commend it, and many judges, among them a number of men who knew its subject in the flesh, have assigned it first place among the portraits of Lincoln time has spared us. Its painter followed his vocation in Frankfort until his death in 1882. Page 256 Number XLVII. PHOTOGRAPH OF LIN- COLN TAKEN BY MATTHEW B. BRADY AT WASHINGTON LATE IN 1864 OR EARLY IN 1865. ORIGINAL NEGATIVE NOW IN THE COLLECTION OF THE WAR DEPARTMENT. Meserve No. 76. Number XLVII. PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN TAKEN BY MATTHEW B. BRADY LATE IN 1864 OR EARLY IN 1865. ORIGINAL NEGATIVE NOW IN THE COLLECTION OF THE WAR DEPART- MENT. Meserve No. 76. With the single exception already noted the photo- graph here reproduced is the most impressive of the many portraits of Lincoln by Brady that have been preserved to us. When it was taken the war be- tween the states was nearing the conclusion for which lovers of the Union for nearly four years had prayed and striven, and Lincoln had been for long quiet yet assured master of himself and of the hard conditions that confronted him. Three other negatives which show Lincoln seated were made at the same time and all reflect the note of proven leadership which has caused one appreciative student to declare this standing photo- graph "the greatest portrait of Lincoln ever taken. " Page 259 Number XLVIII. DRAWING BY KEN YON COX OF LIFE MASK OF LINCOLN MADE BY CLARK MILLS IN FEBRUARY, 1865. NOW IN THE LIN- COLN MUSEUM AT WASHINGTON. Number XLVIII. DRAWING BY KENYON COX OF ORIGINAL OF LIFE MASK OF LINCOLN MADE BY CLARK MILLS IN FEBRUARY, 1865. NOW IN THE LINCOLN MUSEUM AT WASHINGTON. The life mask by Clark Mills here reproduced, now in the Lincoln Museum at Washington, was long owned by the late John Hay, who in an article on "Life in the White House in the Time of Lincoln," printed in The Century Magazine for November, 1890, after characterizing the mask made by Volk as "a face full of life, of energy, of vivid aspiration," said by way of contrast: "The other is so sad and peaceful in its infinite repose that the famous sculptor St. Gaudens insisted, when he first saw it, that it was a death mask." Hay continues: "A look as of one on whom sorrow and care had done their worst without victory is on all the features, the whole expression is of unspeakable sadness and all-sufficing strength. Yet the peace is not the dreadful peace of death ; it is the peace that passeth understanding. " Born in 18 10, Clark Mills was the son of an Onon- daga County, New York, farmer, who, after trying his hand at many trades and long wandering through the Lower South, in 1835, while a resident of Charleston, South Carolina, began modeling in clay. A portrait bust of John C. Calhoun brought him other commis- sions and the favor and support of wealthy and in- fluential friends who secured him a commission to execute the equestrian statue of President Jackson which he finished in 1852 and which now faces the White House from Lafayette Square in Washington. Page 263 The money this work brought Mills enabled him to buy land and build a studio and foundry in the suburbs of Washington. Thereafter for three decades he was a familiar and unmistakable figure in the life of the capital. He made portrait busts of many public men, and one of his biographers records that "he invented a method of putting plaster on the face of his subjects, thereby adding greatly to the truthfulness of his casts/' The most ambitious project of Mills' last years was a Lincoln monument which was to include thirty-six heroic figures, but which when he died in 1883 had not yet taken material form. Page 264 Number XLIX. PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN TAKEN BY HENRY F. WARREN IN WASHINGTON ON MARCH 6, 1865. Meserve No. 93. Number XLIX. PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN TAKEN BY HENRY F. WARREN IN WASHING- TON ON MARCH 6, 1865. Meserve No. 93. The circumstances under which the photograph of Lincoln here reproduced was taken on March 6, 1865, two days after his second inauguration, are in- terestingly described in an article which in October, 1882, Alexander Starbuck of Waltham, Massachusetts, contributed to The Century Magazine. In the last days of February, 1865, according to Mr. Starbuck, Henry F. Warren, a photographer of Waltham, left home purposing, if practicable, to visit the Union Army in front of Richmond. On his arrival in Washington the morning of March 4, finding it necessary to pro- cure passes in order to accomplish the end he had in view, he decided to remain in the capital until the ceremonies of Lincoln's second inauguration were com- pleted, and, having carried with him apparatus neces- sary for taking negatives, to attempt to secure a sitting from the President. However, rumors of plots and dangers had caused friends of the President to urge upon him the neces- sity of a military guard stationed within the White House grounds and as he had finally consented to the presence of such a body to secure an audience with him on short notice had become a difficult matter. Accordingly, when in the late afternoon of March 6, Warren sought a presentation to him he was informed by the guard that an interview could be had at that time only in an irregular manner. But a short talk convinced the officer in charge of the visitor's loyalty. Page 267 Thereupon Warren was admitted within the lines, and told that the surest way to secure an audience with the President was through his little son Tad. The latter, "a great pet with the soldiers of the guard," writes Mr. Starbuck, " soon made his appear- ance on his pony. Rider and pony were quickly placed in position and photographed, after which Mr. Warren asked Tad to tell his father that a man who had come all the way from Boston was particularly anxious to see him and obtain a sitting from him. Tad hastened to his father and returned with word that Mr. Lincoln would comply. Meantime Mr. Warren had improvised a studio on the south balcony of the White House. Mr. Lincoln soon came out and with a few words to his visitor took his seat as indicated. After a single nega- tive had been taken he inquired: 'Is that all, sir?' Unwilling to detain him longer than was absolutely necessary, Mr. Warren replied: 'Yes, Sir,' and the President withdrew. When he appeared upon the bal- cony the wind was blowing freshly, as his disarranged hair indicates, and as sunset was approaching it was difficult to obtain a sharp picture. " Nevertheless, the result was an impressive and touching record of Lincoln's "thought-chiseled and careworn aspect," five short weeks before his death. Page 268 Number L. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINTED FROM LIFE BY WILLIAM MATTHEWS AT WASHINGTON LATE IN 1864. NOW OWNED BY OLIVER R. BARRETT OF CHICAGO. Number L. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINTED FROM LIFE BY WILLIAM MATTHEWS AT WASHINGTON LATE IN 1864. NOW OWNED BY OLIVER R. BARRETT OF CHICAGO. The portrait of Lincoln here reproduced by per- mission of the present owner, Oliver R. Barrett of Chicago, was painted at Washington late in 1864 by William Matthews, who had his training as an artist in Bristol, England, where he was born, and who for many years before his death in 1905, successfully practiced his calling in Washington. His likeness of Lincoln, the result of a number of sittings granted him by the President, is an excellent one, and shows that now and again he knew how to divine and depict "the soul that moves in the superfices. ,, It claimed an hon- ored place in the Libby Prison Museum and other exhibits before it became the property of Mr. Barrett. Page 271 Number LI. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINTED FROM LIFE BY GEORGE VICTOR COOPER AT WASHINGTON EARLY IN 1865. NOW OWNED BY A. E. RUEFF OF BROOKLYN. Number LI. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINTED FROM LIFE BY GEORGE VICTOR COOPER AT WASHINGTON EARLY IN 1865. NOW OWNED BY A. E. RUEFF OF BROOKLYN. The unusual portrait of Lincoln reproduced in this place by permission of its present owner, A. E. Rueff of Brooklyn, was painted by George Victor Cooper at Washington, early in 1865. This artist, a native of New York City, had his training under Sam- uel F. B. Morse and other painters. He was also one of the original Forty-niners, going to California in 1849, by the Nicaragua route. Returning to the East two years later, he brought with him a series of sketches of scenes in the mining camps from which he made in 1852 the lithographs for the now rare book by J. M. Letts entitled, "California Illustrated, " published that year in New York. During the Civil W T ar Cooper was on duty in Washington, and according to his daughter who is still living had three sittings from Lincoln only a few weeks before the latter's death. He passed his last years in New York, dying there in 1 878 at the age of sixty-eight. Page 275 Number LI I. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY CHARLES WESLEY JARVIS PAINTED AT WASHINGTON EARLY IN 1865. NOW IN THE LINCOLN COLLECTION OF HARRY MacNEILL BLAND. NumferLII.PORTRAITOFLINCOLNBYCHARLES WESLEY JARVIS PAINTED AT WASHINGTON EARLY IN 1865. NOW IN THE LINCOLN COL- LECTION OF HARRY MacNEILL BLAND. The portrait by Charles Wesley Jarvis here repro- duced by permission of its present owner Harry MacNeill Bland was one of the last likenesses of Lin- coln painted from life, and portrays with feeling and infinite pathos the changes "the burden of his great office" had wrought in him. Thus it claims a place all its own in any Lincoln gallery. The son of John Wesley Jarvis, in his time an artist of rank and quality whose career, however, was wrecked by drink, Charles Wes- ley Jarvis was born in 1821 in New York City, and his mother dying when he was very young he was reared by her family at Oyster Bay. He began his art studies under Henry Inman, and later was a member of the life classes of the National Academy of Design. Jarvis painted for a time in Cuba, and for periods of varying length in Washington and the principal cit- ies of the South, but his working years were mainly passed in and about New York City, where he long enjoyed favor as a portrait painter both in oils and miniature. He died in 1868 in Newark, New Jersey. Like his father before him, his success was crippled and his life shortened by intemperate habits, but his penetrating and sympathetic portrait of Lincoln affords him a sure and weighty claim to remembrance. Page 279 Number LIII. LITHOGRAPH OF A PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY MATTHEW WILSON PAINTED AT WASHINGTON IN APRIL, 1865. Number LI 1 1. LITHOGRAPH OF A PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY MATTHEW WILSON PAINTED AT WASHINGTON IN APRIL, 1865. In the opening days of 1865 Matthew Wilson, a painter of repute then at work in Washington, re- ceived from L. C. Prang and Company of Boston an order for a portrait of Lincoln which it was their pur- pose to reproduce as a lithograph. Without delay Wilson began the execution of this commission, and in a letter written in 1894, Peter Baumgras, a fellow artist and friend, states that "Mr. Lincoln gave him one sitting two weeks before the assassination in the house next to my studio." The portrait thus begun Wilson com- pleted with the aid of photographs, and in lithograph form it had wide circulation in the months immediately following Lincoln's death. Like the Gardner photo- graph taken on Palm Sunday, 1865, Wilson's portrait reveals a Lincoln worn by care and unceasing anxiety, but who faces the future and its problems with con- fidence and a steadfast heart. Wilson was born in London, but came to America at an early age, and for several years painted minia- tures in Philadelphia, where he also received instruc- tion from Henry Inman, a popular and fashionable artist of the period. Thereafter his advance in his pro- fession was slow but steady, and during a half century he placed to his credit noteworthy portraits of a large number of eminent men and women, his sitters includ- ing Gideon Welles, Thaddeus Stevens, Henry Wilson and Samuel J. Tilden. He also painted the full-length portrait of Martha Washington that hangs in the White House. Wilson died in Brooklyn in February, 1892, aged seventy-eight years. Page 283 Number LIV. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY PETER BAUMGRAS PAINTED AT WASHINGTON IN 1865. NOW OWNED BY BROWN UNIVERSITY. Number LIV. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY PETER BAUMGRAS PAINTED AT WASHINGTON IN 1865. NOW OWNED BY BROWN UNIVERSITY. The conditions under which the impressive portrait here reproduced was executed are described in a letter which the painter in June, 1894, addressed to Henry H. Hamilton, then owner of the canvas. "An ardent Republican, " Baumgras wrote, "I took a great interest to see the President-elect when secretly he arrived in Washington. He took rooms at Willard's Hotel and two days later (gave) an afternoon recep- tion with his wife. I attended it in company with Miss Hatch, a sister of Major-General Hatch of the United States Army. This was before the inauguration. I had a fine chance to study his features. Subsequently and during his entire term as President I saw him fre- quently — once for half an hour's length while sitting in his carriage witnessing the drill of the Seventh New York Regiment on Meridian Hill ... I could draw his likeness readily by heart. "When in his second term the Confederacy began to collapse the wish to paint a portrait of Lincoln be- came fixed, and I started one. Previously he sat but for two artists . . . Mr. Healy and Mr. Frank Car- penter, who was for that purpose six months in the White House. . . . These artists in order to save Mr. Lincoln's time in sitting used photographs in connec- tion with sittings. After Mr. Lincoln's death, of course, all the portraits (of him) had to be completed with the use of photographs. ... As I had the coat of the President in my studio, I took careful measurements Page 287 of his dimensions. So by dint of study and the aid of intelligent criticism I finished Mr. Lincoln's likeness. Mr. Secretary Chase was greatly (pleased) with it, and said he had seen no better one. "But the best opinion I had (came) from Justice David Davis of the United States Supreme Court — a lifelong friend of Mr. Lincoln. He was perfectly pleased with it. So also was the Hon. Mr. Brownell, member of Congress from Illinois, who frequently visited my studio and was familiar with Lincoln's countenance. One day when I chanced to be out a party unknown to me brought in Robert Lincoln, and those who were in the studio at the time told me (that) Mr. Lincoln expressed himself pleased with his father's portrait." The canvas here under consideration shows Baum- gras to have been a soundly trained painter. He was born in Bavaria, and studied at Dusseldorf and at the Royal Academy in Munich. In 1853 he came to America, and for more than twenty years lived and painted in Washington. Appointment to a chair in the University of Illinois in 1877 led to his removal to Chicago, where he passed the remainder of his days, numbering among his pupils many future painters of mark. He died in 1904 aged seventy-seven years. Page 288 Number LV. LAST PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN TAKEN BY ALEX- ANDER GARDNER AT WASHINGTON ON PALM SUNDAY, APRIL 9, 1865. Me serve No. ioo. Number LV. LAST PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN TAKEN BY ALEXANDER GARDNER AT WASH- INGTON ON PALM SUNDAY, APRIL 9, 1865. Meserve No. ioo This last photograph of Lincoln was taken under happy conditions, although as events were soon to prove, he was already under the shadow of death. On the morning of March 24, 1865, the President ar- rived at City Point to observe at first hand some action by the veterans of Grant's army. The maneuvers that followed so keenly interested him that he delayed his return to Washington until April 7. Two days later, the morning of Palm Sunday, the news of Lee's sur- render reached him, and in the afternoon of a memor- able day, acceding to the earnest request of Alexander Gardner, he granted that photographer a series of eight sittings at the White House. One of these sittings gave us the close-up and pro- foundly impressive view of the President here repro- duced, and there is little doubt that it was the last of the series of eight. The original negative shows a crack extending across it and passing through Lincoln's forehead, and as all early prints from it reveal this defect, it is evident that the crack occurred before any prints were made from it. The other negatives in this group are marked by the same look of patient resigna- tion on the sitter's face -- with a single exception. One of the negatives now owned by Creighton H. Williams of Fort Wayne, Indiana, shows Lincoln with a pencil in his hand which he had been sharpening for Tad, Page 291 and with a smile passing over his face. No other known photograph of him shows him in cheerful mood. Dr. Louis A. Warren, with ample reason, has styled the photograph under consideration the Triumphant Lincoln, and another after studying this profile de- clared that the whole story of the Civil War was vis- ualized in it. Poignant is the contrast between it and the photograph of Lincoln made by Hesler in June, i860, soon after his nomination for President. The years between had taken their heavy and irreparable toll. During this period Lincoln is said to have lost twenty-five pounds in weight; his physical energies had decreased as his moral and spiritual resources had steadily grown in depth and richness, and there is grave question had he lived on into the period of reconstruc- tion whether or not the attendant strain and anxiety would not in no long time have proved as fatal as did Booth's bullet on the night of April 14, 1865. Alexander Gardner was an English photographer of skill and talent who in 1855 was brought to America by Brady and who served as the latter's principal as- sistant in Washington until 1863, when he established his own gallery. He made many photographs of Lin- coln, but none of the others gives him as secure a claim to remembrance as does the last of the group taken on Palm Sunday in 1865. Page 29: Xumber LVI. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY WILLIAM MORRIS HUNT PAINTED IN 1856. NOW OWNED BY JOHN G. WINANT, FORMER GOVERNOR OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. Number LVI. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY WIL- LIAM MORRIS HUNT PAINTED IN 1866. NOW OWNED BY JOHN G. WINANT, FORMER GOV- ERNOR OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. The canvas here reproduced by permission of its owner, John G. Winant, is a second and later version of the head in the full-length portrait which William Morris Hunt, then the leading artist of New England, painted in 1865 at the request of Doll and Richards of Boston who desired a portrait that could be engraved for popular distribution. John A. Andrew, governor of Massachusetts, wrote to Mrs. Lincoln re- questing her assistance, and Pendell, a door-keeper at the White House of the same height as Lincoln, was sent to Boston to serve, clad in the clothes of the dead President, as model for this portrait. The commission given Hunt was duly executed, but was later annulled for reasons satisfactory to the parties to it. Andrew then urged that the State of Massachusetts purchase the portrait, but, at Hunt's request, negotiations were dropped when opposition to the necessary appropria- tion developed among members of the legislature, and it remained in his studio until 1872 when it was des- troyed by fire. However, a copy of the head which Hunt made in 1 866 escaped the flames. At his death it passed to his daughter, Mrs. E. Hunt Slater, who in 1925 sold it to its present owner. It is Governor Win- ant's announced purpose to eventually present it to some museum, or to the Federal Government for fit- ting preservation at the capital. Page Number LVII. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINTED BY GEORGE P. A. HEALY IN 1866 OR 1867. NOW IN THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY IN CHICAGO. Number LVII. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN PAINTED BY GEORGE P. A. HEALY IN 1866 OR 1867. NOW IN THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY IN CHICAGO. The portrait of Lincoln by Healy here reproduced, a full length figure seated in a chair, now hangs in the Newberry Library in Chicago and although not painted from life has an interesting history which prompts its inclusion in the present record. Executed in Chicago in 1866 or 1867 it was primarily a study for a large historical painting called "The Peacemakers in which Healy undertook to depict President Lincoln, Generals Grant and Sherman and Admiral Porter at their meeting on board the steamer River Queen at City Point when Sherman came up from the South to confer with Grant as to the closing movements of the Civil War and the possibilities of an early peace be- tween the sections. This canvas was conceived in Chicago, and the portrait of Lincoln which the artist included in it, according to an letter addressed by Robert Lincoln to the editor of The Century Magazine, in 1908, was based upon a full-size study made "from photographs and from suggestions made by my father's friend, Mr. Leonard Swett and myself. Indeed, Mr. Swett acted as the model for the figure. " Healy's group, "The Peacemakers, " which he com- pleted abroad, hung for many years in the Calumet Club in Chicago, but when the building of that organ- ization was burned in 1892, the picture was lost in it. A happier fate attended a study of Lincoln which pre- ceded the painting of his larger canvas. Two copies were made of this study. One copy was acquired by Page 299 Robert Lincoln and is at present owned by his estate. The second copy was painted for Elihu B. Washburne and his brother William D. Washburn, who dropped the final "e" from his name. It was the intention of the Washburns to present their purchase to a library at their old home in Maine, but this was never done, and the portrait now belongs to the heirs of William D. Washburn, who early acquired his brother's interest in it. Oddly, Robert Lincoln and Senator Washburne each believed that his own copy was the original, but if Healy's "Reminiscences, " published in a slender volume in 1904, the last year of his life, can be trusted, the original, reproduced in this place, is in the New- berry Library. The position of the figure in this por- trait has real interest for the student, "since it is one in which Lincoln sometimes sat by the hour thinking things through. " Healy states in his "Reminiscences" that he "had sittings" with Lincoln, but he does not say when or where, although the implication is that they were in Washington. He was over eighty when he wrote, and an old man's memory may not have been wholly de- pendable, but his statement is in a measure strength- ened by the story that during one of the sittings Lin- coln received a letter from a woman telling him that he should grow more whiskers to cover his homely face before he had a picture painted. It was in October, i860, that eleven-year-old Grace Bedell wrote Lincoln urging him to grow a beard. Healy shortly before his death gave all of his unsold canvasses to the New- berry Library, and in the list he made of them he states that the portrait of Lincoln here under consideration Page 300 1 'was painted from life in Springfield the year of his second election/' Other evidence to the contrary elim- inated, we know, of course, that here the artist's mem- ory played him false, for Lincoln never returned to Springfield after he left for his inauguration in Feb- ruary, 1 86 1. Page 301 Number LVIII. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY AN UNKNOWN ARTIST, PROBABLY PAINTED AT SPRINGFIELD IN THE SUMMER OF 1860. NOW OWNED BY MRS. MARY E. TRUMBULL OF CHICAGO. Number LVIU. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY AN UNKNOWN ARTIST, PROBABLY PAINTED AT SPRINGFIELD IN THE SUMMER OF 1860. NOW OWNED BY MRS. MARY E. TRUMBULL OF CHICAGO. One of the most interesting of the portraits of Lin- coln painted by unknown artists that have come to the attention of students in recent years is here re- produced by permission of its present owner, Mrs. Mary E. Trumbull of Chicago. It is more than probable that it was painted in Springfield in the summer of i860, for while it closely resembles a photograph of Lincoln taken in 1856 or earlier and formerly in the collection of Truman H. Bartlett, the Boston sculptor (a duplicate is now in the Lincoln Museum at Wash- ington) Lincoln told Leonard W. Volk in April, i860, that he "had never before sat to painter or sculptor." There is therefore good grounds for the belief that the portrait under consideration was painted from life by one of the artists who flocked to Springfield in the weeks immediately following Lincoln's first ncmina- tion for President. Indeed, there is a tradition amcng the descendants of Charles M. Foster, long a prcm- inent resident of Springfield and father of its present owner, that it was the work of an artist, name now lest, who in the summer of i860 rented a studio in a build- ing owned by Mr. Foster and who there executed a portrait of Lincoln which he sold to his landlord cr.d which has ever since remained in the pessessien of the latter's family. Unfortunately no one is now alive who could give first-hand testimony as to the facts in the Page 3c 5 case, but whoever the painter may have been, the result of his handiwork is a portrait of unusual appeal and excellence. Page 306 Number LIX. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY AN UNKNOWN ARTIST. NOW OWNED BY WILLIAM H. TOWNSEND, OF LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY. Sumber LIX. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY AN UN- KNOWN ARTIST. NOW OWNED BY WILLIAM H. TOWNSEND, OF LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY The date and painter of the portrait here repro- duced are unknown, but a number of experts who have examined it are of the opinion that it can with reasonable probability be assigned to Francis B. Car- penter, a belief that is strengthened by the following letter from Mrs. Lincoln to Carpenter written a few months after her husband's death, now owned by Mr. Townsend and never before published: "Chicago, October 26, 1865 "Frank B. Carpenter "My Dear Sir: "In the midst of my overwhelming distress, the kind promise you several times made me in regard to my beloved husbands portrait, returns to my remembrance. Will you not send us one quite as accurate as in the 'Emancipation Proclamation?' More, we could not ask or expect. As one, whom my lamented husband so highly respected — we will always hope to see you, should you visit Chicago. I have always felt great pride in the success of your great painting; bowed down with such intense sorrow, think of what inestimable value a portrait from your unerring skill would be prized by myself and my boys. Please present my regards to Mrs. Carpenter and be assured of my sincere esteem. "Mary Lincoln." There is little if any doubt that under the circum- stances, Carpenter, whose generous nature never failed to be moved by another's sorrow, readily and gladly complied with Mrs. Lincoln's request, but no one knows where this portrait is unless it be the one owned by Mr. Townsend. It is not in the family of Robert Page 309 Lincoln, and the one here under consideration closely resembles in every detail of feature and coloring Car- penter's original Emancipation Proclamation portrait. Page 3 i o NumberLX. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN SEATED. DATE AND NAME OF PAINTER UNKNOWN. NOW IN THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM. Number LX. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN SEATED. DATE AND NAME OF PAINTER UNKNOWN. NOW IN THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM. This fine portrait which now hangs in the Brooklyn Museum presents another interesting and per- plexing problem to the Lincoln student. Museum auth- orities know nothing of its origin, although the first impression one gains from it is that it was painted from life by a master of his craft. However, a comparison of it with the photograph of Lincoln taken by Hesler at Springfield in June, i860, furnishes a clue to the conditions under which, in all probability, it came into being. Such a study makes it evident that a clever painter used a reverse of the Hesler photograph as the basis of a sitting portrait of Lincoln, putting a book in the right hand of his subject and adding the beard which the President began to grow soon after his election. But while the data employed and the methods of the artist are bound to remain matters of more or less plausible conjecture, there is general and hearty agreement that the result was a portrait in every way deserving of respectful admiration. Page 313 Number LXI. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY AN UNKNOWN ARTIST. NOW IN THE RENAISSANCE GALLERIES, PHILADELPHIA. Number LXI. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN BY AN UNKNOWN ARTIST. NOW IN THE RENAIS- SANCE GALLERIES, PHILADELPHIA. Reproduction of a fourth portrait of Lincoln by an . unknown artist, now in the Renaissance Galleries, Philadelphia, will serve to complete the present collec- tion and chronicle. The canvas in question, twenty-five by thirty inches in size, was rescued in 1901 from a pile of second-hand and battered furniture taken from the attic of the old Red Lion Inn at Second and Noble Streets, Philadelphia, where in an earlier time it had hung for many years. In January, 191 7, it was found on the walls of a private house in Philadelphia by Baruch M. Feldman, a young painter of that city, who purchased it and set about its restoration. When successive layers of varnish and dust had been removed, the portrait stood out clear and well defined in all its features — an impressive likeness of Lincoln as he appeared at one of the times when his beard manifestly needed attention from a barber, but rich in coloring and charged with the dignity and virility of a man in all ways equal to the leadership of a nation in trying days. There is a possibility that it was painted by Jesse At- wood, a Philadelphia artist, to whom, as we know, Lin- coln accorded sittings in the fall of 1 860 ; but this possi- bility is no more than interesting conjecture, and despite long and painstaking inquiry by its present owner, the date and maker of an unusual portrait remain unknown. And so, as is the case with so many matters having to do with Lincoln from his earliest to his latest years, the present record closes with an interrogation. Page 3 1 7 LINCOLN IN PORTRAITURE Of this book six hundred and fifty (650) copies have been printed, numbered and signed by the author for The Press of the Pioneers, Inc. New York City The paper is 1 co-lb. Ivory Velour Satin- tone Enamel, and the type is Monotype Goudy Old Style. The designing and print- ing were under the personal supervision of R. Clyde Stuart, at the Finger Lakes Press, Auburn, New York, and the bind- ing was designed and supervised by the Wolff Bindery, New York City. NINETEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE No.. C&j