Abraham Lincoln Selfies

Abraham Lincoln was the first “selfie” nut. His first photograph was in 1846, taken only about seven years after the daguerreotype process was introduced worldwide. Talk about your early adopters. That first photograph was basically a class picture as the newly elected young Lincoln prepared to go to Washington for his one term as a U.S. Congressman.

One clarification that probably doesn’t need to be said but I’ll say it anyway. This wasn’t actually a “selfie” by our standards. Not only didn’t Lincoln take the photo of himself, but he was forced to stand, or in this case sit, perfectly still for up to several minutes while the silver coating on a copper plate was being exposed. Metal “head holders” and other props were often used to help the subject stay still long enough to avoid a blurry image. Later photos were taken with the more advanced, but also more fragile, glass plate method. And alas, no Instagram.

Lincoln went on to have at least 130 photographs taken during the remainder of his life, with the final solo photograph taken in early February of 1865. Two photographs were taken after this. One was a erratically focused crowd shot of him standing on the Capitol steps giving his second inaugural address on March 4, 1964. The other was an unauthorized photo of Lincoln laying in an open casket in New York City following his assassination.

In most of the photos Lincoln sits or stands alone. One has him sitting with his youngest son Tad standing beside him gazing down at the book open in Lincoln’s lap. Perhaps the most intriguing photos are the series taken by Alexander Gardner at Antietam during Lincoln’s post-battle visit to meet with General McClellan. In one, the lanky Lincoln and the diminutive McClellan stare down each other in a group photo with other generals.

I write about Lincoln and his photographs for a few reasons. It was November 8, 1863 that Lincoln sat for a photo with his two secretaries, John Nicolay and John Hay, standing to either side. I have also recently read two books that look at the photographers most often associated with Lincoln and the Civil War: Matthew Brady and Alexander Gardner. The other of one of the books, Nicholas J.C. Pistor, will be a speaker at the upcoming Lincoln Forum in Gettysburg. The author of the second book, Richard S. Lowry, was a Forum speaker a few years ago. Both books are wonderful reads. I’m also including a section on Lincoln and photography in my “work-in-progress,” so I have a particular interest in this area.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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