Civil War Presidency Abraham Lincoln Portrait Stereoview Based on the February 1865 Lewis Emory Walker Photograph

Abraham Lincoln

Photograph

Lincoln, Abraham. Late Civil War portrait of Abraham Lincoln derived from a February 1865 photograph taken during the final months of the American Civil War. The image records Lincoln near the conclusion of the conflict that preserved the Union and ended legal slavery in the United States. Created shortly before his assassination in April 1865, the portrait captures a visibly worn president whose appearance reflected the physical and political strain of leading the nation through four years of war. The photograph was long attributed to Mathew Brady but was actually taken by government photographer Lewis Emory Walker and issued commercially through the New York photographic publishers E. & H. T. Anthony. The portrait belongs to a group of late images that document Lincoln’s appearance in the closing weeks of the war.

Stereoview photograph published by Keystone View Company reproducing the 1865 Walker portrait of Abraham Lincoln. Keystone stereograph number 92. The mount bears the Keystone biographical text about Lincoln on the verso together with the company’s copyright notice. A handwritten pencil notation on the reverse references the earlier attribution of the photograph to Mathew Brady. The portrait shows Lincoln with closely cut hair, a style that contemporary accounts suggested was recommended by his barber in preparation for the creation of a life mask by sculptor Clark Mills.

Photographic portraits of Lincoln produced during the final months of the Civil War became some of the most widely circulated visual representations of the president after his assassination in April 1865. Images such as this stereographic reproduction contributed to the creation of Lincoln’s public memory in the late nineteenth century, when photographic publishers issued stereographs and other prints that allowed Americans to view notable figures through emerging visual media. Stereographs played an important role in popular visual culture during this period, offering audiences three dimensional photographic views through stereoscopic viewers and distributing portraits of political leaders to a wide national audience. Light wear consistent with age and handling. Overall condition good to very good.

Item #13623

Price: $750.00