Is This Abraham Lincoln?

[L Verge]

(06-23-2017 04:43 PM)wcvet6 Wrote:  

(06-23-2017 03:04 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Trust me, I am watching my tone and would suggest that you might want to temper your own. That said, please cite me the exact source for Dr. Brown's or Cattell's written description of the embalming procedure. What has been posted above describes more the autopsy in general terms, but does not provide an exact source for the embalming procedure performed on Mr. Lincoln.

I also asked if there was a photographer's mark on the reverse of your CDV. Would you be so kind as to inform me if there is such a stamp or not, and if so, what it says? That would be another way of determining who and (more importantly) in what city the photo was taken.

While I do question your method of historical investigation, it is my job as a museum professional to ask for any primary source materials or good documentation to back up anyone's theories. I am not singling you out specifically. If I had been in this profession in 1952 (I was nine at the time), I would have asked Dr. Rietveld for the same information.

the cdv was pasted on an antique photo album page with other cdv 's on said page I dare not remove it.

I know that the Victorians were very fond of pasting everything they could get their hands on into albums and scrapbooks. I inherited quite a few from my ancestors. Are there other photos of famous (or dead) people on the same page that might offer a clue?

Most period photo albums have only one photo to a page, and it is inserted behind a frame of sorts. The pages are generally quite thick. I inherited lots of those also and have also flipped through many such albums at shows, museum archives, etc. Does this album match that description, or is it a scrapbook page with brittle paper and multiple photos on one page (that's what I'm judging from your description)?

If it's a scrapbook page, it's a shame because viewing any marks on the back of that photo is important to determining the date, location, and circumstances of said photo.

In the case of men's clothing being an identifying factor, that can be tricky because gentlemen's fashions did not change significantly for years.

I am assuming, since you have not posted a response to my question about the existence of official records from Dr. Brown's files of April 1865, that you have not been able to locate them either?

As an aside, I have to say that, when you first posted the CDV, my first instinct was to suggest that it might be a "living" photo of Jefferson Davis in his later years. We know that he had white hair and some features similar to his rival.

I enlarged the image until the pixels went crazy and still guessed it might be Davis, not Lincoln. I was basing my guess strictly on facial features; the gawky full figure with a slight paunch didn't seem to match either man to me.

Best wishes for a successful search for provenance to prove your suspicions about this photo.

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http://www.phototree.com/id_cdv.htm Forum members: If you have not already visited this site that Steve posted, please do so. It really is a handy guide for beginners to use in learning how to identify 19th-century photographs.

I went back and re-read the description of dating the borders of CDVs after perusing the photo in debate here. According to that website, this particular photo would date to 1861-1862. It is the photo pasted on its matting with no borders. After that, borders were added with specific borders being particular to certain time periods.

Based on that one, professional description, our anonymous subject in this particular photo would have been posing at least three years before Mr. Lincoln was assassinated.

I also remembered after reading that information that the government taxed photos from 1864 on in order to help pay the war debt. A tax stamp should be on the back of said photo (as well as the photographer's mark) if it was taken in 1865. Too bad that the photo is glued down and the reverse side hidden.