Possible Rare Lincoln Photo???

[Micah Trent]

Here is a an article on the possible rare photo of Lincoln that U.S. Grant IV owned and sold.
Mods please move this if needed. Thanks.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090310/ap_on_re_us/lincoln_photograph_uncovered

[markj]

Re: Possible Rare Lincoln Photo???

Here is a an article on the possible rare photo of Lincoln that U.S. Grant IV owned and sold.
Mods please move this if needed. Thanks.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090310/...raph_uncovered

Attached is a closeup of the image in question. If the tall guy isn't Lincoln himself, then it must be his evil twin brother. Here is the AP caption attached to the photo:

This detail of a March 6, 1865 photo by Henry F. Warren, provided by the Collection Keya Morgan/LincolnImages.com, shows the White House with several figures standing in front of it. Photography collector Keya Morgan says the photo is the only known photograph of Lincoln standing in front of the White House, and the first photo ever to have been taken of a President in front of the White House. Morgan added the 6'4 to reference which figure he believes in Abraham Lincoln.
(AP Photo/Collection of Keya Morgan, LincolnImages.com)

I'm guessing the height of the man in the center was determined via photo analytic software and using known dimensions of various White House architectural details, particularly the prominent iron fence behind "Lincoln."

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[lukegilly13]

Re: Possible Rare Lincoln Photo???

I saw this story on Yahoo this morning..I tried to view more pictures to determine what I thought for myself but the gallery was full of pictures of Barack Obama (I guess he found a rare Lincoln image as well????).
How much do we know about this photographer? I believe the only way to check out the image will be the varify the validy of the statement on the back. Do we know that Tad as photographed on this day and is it possible that these images were taken at the same time? If there are images of Tad in front of the White House maybe it will be possible to compare shadows to at least confirm the images were taken at relatively the same time. We can't go by the size of the man in the image for several reasons....
1) We cannot determine depth...it could be an average man standing much closer to the camera.
2) We do not know the height of the other folks in the image...they could all be extremely short.
If we could possibly find the actual heights of the objects in the image (such as the fence, statues, etc) then we could rule the above out, however, we still do not know their depth for sure.
A tall man STILL does not make it Abraham Lincoln for sure.....
This is the wonderful part of history....our only foundations are what we have and what we already know...and both foundations keep changing!
A little doubt (although I believe that probably is the president) would be a previous image of Lincoln (I think at his 1st inauguration) and there is another VERY TALL man who looks like the President in the image. Could be his brother. If someone doesn't beat me to it, i'll post this image tonight.
I found the image...however I cannot get my scanner to cooperate. It is located on page 26 of "The Civil War" by Geoffrey C. Ward with Ric Burns and Ken Burns. The image is taken at Lincoln's home in Springfield Illinois and the caption reads: "Tradition dictated that Lincoln, here seen standing head and shoulders avoe his constituents in the doorway of his home at Sprinfield, Illinois, not actively campaign for the presidency. But he did greet the delegations of supporters who flocked to see him."
Can anyone get a copy of this on the computer?

[markj]

Re: Possible Rare Lincoln Photo???

Frankly, I'm a bit more intrigued by the other individuals in the photo. From what I can see, the soldier at far left is at support arms. The man standing directly above "Lincoln" could well be John Hay, Lincoln's assistant private secretary.

Here are several wartime pics of Hay so you can draw your own conclusions.

http://dl.lib.brown.edu/lincoln/Lincoln_Hay/img/1174484093546875.jpg

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[Secesh]

Re: Possible Rare Lincoln Photo???

Actually, this would be the last photo taken of Lincoln in life; the LAST photo taken of Lincoln would be the now-famous casket photo, long thought destroyed by Stanton.