[Lincoln, Abraham]. Hesler, Alexander, photographer. Platinum photograph printed by George B. Ayres, ca 1890.

8 3/4 x 6 3/4 in. platinum photograph of Abraham Lincoln taken on 3 June 1860. Although unsigned, the photograph was printed ca 1890 by George B. Ayers. Overall near excellent, with minor edge and corner wear to print.

Following Abraham Lincoln's formal nomination as the 1860 Republican candidate for president, party officials from across the country sought new images to promote his candidacy, fearing that those images (in particular those by Alexander Hesler) currently in circulation depicted the Republican nominee as unkempt when compared to his rivals. And so, as Hesler would later write, "I went to Springfield, and made the negative that was afterward used for the campaign badges." All told, Hesler took four photographs that day, including this portrait, catalogued by Ostendorf as sitting O-27.

Alexander Hesler was an American photographer who operated studios in Galena, Chicago, and Springfield, Illinois, and his images of Abraham Lincoln are best remembered today. Upon his retirement in 1865, fellow photographer George B. Ayres bought Hesler's studios and all of his photographic negatives. Beginning in the 1880s, Ayres reproduced images of Lincoln from Hesler's original negatives and sold them from his Philadelphia studio. The original Hesler negatives were damaged during shipment from Philadelphia to St. Louis in 1933.

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Printed Books & Early American Photography, including Selections from the Larry Ness Collection

[Lincoln, Abraham]. Hesler, Alexander, photographer. Platinum photograph printed by George B. Ayres, ca 1890.

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