Alexander Gardner
1863, 9 August
Abraham Lincoln

Carte de visite
Swann Galleries - New York
Courtesy of Swann Galleries (Auction, Feb 11, 2010, #2202, Lot 50)
 
Photograph Signed, "A. Lincoln," as President, carte-de-visite portrait by Gardner, showing the President seated, legs crossed, his left arm leaning on a book and holding a newspaper, his right hand holding his eyeglasses. Signed on the mount below the image. Photographer's imprint on verso. Corners and top edge of mount slightly trimmed.
 
This image was taken early on August 9, 1863--a Sunday--a time selected so as to avoid the unwanted attention of the curious. It is one of four images taken in the same instant, as Gardner employed a four-lens camera that allowed him to send each of the four parts of the negative to a different assistant in order to maximize production. As quoted in Hamilton-Ostendorf on the same page as a reproduction of the present image, John Hay made a note in his diary about the sitting: "I went down with the President to have his picture taken at Gardner's. He was in very good spirits." Charles Hamilton and Lloyd Ostendorf, Lincoln in Photographs, 1963, p. 130, No. O-70.
 
LL/34080