Abraham Lincoln by Samuel Fassett

The 19th Century Shop presents this salt print which is the earliest paper photograph of Abraham Lincoln taken from life and not made from an ambrotype or daguerreotype. Lincoln sat for this portrait at the Cook (often given as Cooke) & Fassett Gallery in Chicago on October 4, 1859.

 Lincoln’s unsuccessful 1858 Senate race against Stephan Douglas had won him some national recognition. It was not until the Cooper Union address in New York in 1860 that Lincoln would be regarded as a serious candidate for the presidency.

 Read more