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Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865
Lincoln was becoming a national celebrity during the summer of 1860, but some worried that his looks might cost him votes. Philadelphia supporter John M. Read hired John Henry Brown to make a good, small portrait that would serve as the basis for a printed campaign image. Brown had five sittings with the candidate but also based the image on several ambrotypes taken in Illinois. Lincoln's secretary thought the result was "so well executed that when magnified to life size one cannot discover any defects of brush marks on it at all." Mrs. Lincoln requested that Read give the portrait to her, and it descended in the family until 1975.
John Henry Brown, 1860 |