Thomas Lincoln

[loetar44]

This Thomas I've "printed" in my mind ....

   

Just saw at

http://mredlincolnalbum.blogspot.nl/

this photo of AL's father, I've never seen before...

   

don't know if this is an authentic picture, so have some doubts. Does someone see this picture before? Who has more info?

Anyway if authentic, young Abe looks like his father, as is seen in this rarely seen photo of Lincoln (possibly by Preston Butler) made in May 1860, just after Lincoln clinched the Republican nomination.

   

[Gene C]

I have my doubts too, about the Thomas Lincoln photo. If the guy in the photo is in his mid forties, that would mean the photo would have been made no later than 1830. Thomas Lincoln was born in 1778.

Nice site, thanks for sharing it.

[L Verge]

No later than 1830 would make it earlier than the birth of photography, wouldn't it? Why does Daguerre and 1837 stick in my mind?

[RJNorton]

don't know if this is an authentic picture, so have some doubts. Does someone see this picture before? Who has more info?

Kees, I have many, many Lincoln books and have never seen that image labeled as Thomas Lincoln in any book I own.

[loetar44]

don't know if this is an authentic picture, so have some doubts. Does someone see this picture before? Who has more info?

Kees, I have many, many Lincoln books and have never seen that image labeled as Thomas Lincoln in any book I own.

I've just sent a mail to Mr. Ed. Hope he has more info.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Kees, sorry, to me the entire form and proportions of the head in the "new" photo don't seem compartible with the ones in the known and ascertained photo you posted at the top. The head looks much longer and smaller, and less square.

[loetar44]

Just received the following answer from Mr. Ed:

Hello Kees ~
Good to hear from you. I'm sorry, I really don't remember where the Thomas Lincoln photo came from. It's been several years since I posted it. It had to have been published somewhere. It was marked as Thomas Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's father. I never post photos or information from people that I don't know until I check it myself. I have many, many books on Abraham Lincoln. This is, no doubt, where the picture came from. I will go through them and see if I can find it again. I will let you know when I do. And where I find it. Talk later, Ed ~

[Eva Elisabeth]

Found it here:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/93500172/
The title just says: "Thomas Lincoln, half-length portrait, facing slightly right", no reference to A. L. Could this have been another Thomas Lincoln than A. L.'s father?

Also as the date created/published is estimated as between 1860-1880, but A. L.'s father died on Jan.17, 1851.

Well, "created/published" does on the other hand not mean "taken".

However, A. L.'s father was 73 when he died, and the upper photo was taken ca. in 1850:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008680251/
The Thomas Lincoln in the questionable photo looks like a man around fifty to me, not older. Thus the photo must have been taken in ca.1830.

Wiki says: "The daguerreotype process, introduced in 1839, was the first publicly announced photographic process and the first to come into widespread use."

Your thoughts?

[L Verge]

Wonder what the Ruthven Deane Collection is that is referred to as the collection containing this photo?

I doubt very seriously that this is THE Thomas Lincoln that sired Abraham Lincoln. Ed Steers of this forum has done extensive Lincoln genealogy on the Lincolns. Wish he would chime in.

---

I think this may give us a clue: Ruthven Deane (20 August 1851, Cambridgeport – 20 March 1934, Chicago) was an American ornithologist, noted as a founding member of the American Ornithologists' Union[1] and for his collection of photographic portraits of ornithologists and naturalists.[2]

Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 AOU and later
3 References
4 External links
Early life[edit]
From an early age, Deane was an enthusiastic amateur ornithologist. As a schoolboy he was a close friend to William Brewster and Daniel French and went on field trips with those two and other boys. At about 18 years of age, he obtained employment in Boston at Dana Bros., a company that imported sugar and molasses from the West Indies. The Boston Fire of 1872 caused him to find employment in the insurance business, where he continued until 1880, when he moved to Chicago to join his brother Charles E. Deane in the wholesale grocery firm of Deane Bros. and Lincoln.

Note the last word in that quote from Wikipedia. Want to bet that Thomas Lincoln was the Lincoln in the grocery firm of Deane Bros. and Lincoln? Some sloppy assumption elevated him to Abraham Lincoln's father, I bet...

[loetar44]

Eva (photo) and Laurie (analysis), you both are GREAT ! Puzzle solved !

In Charles Wendell Townsend’s “Audubon’s Labrador” (published April 1918), p. 12 I found the portrait of the “mysterious Thomas Lincoln” and he is definitely NOT President Lincoln’s father, but a great ornithologist! He is of Dennysville, Maine, the son of an old friend of Audubon (another ornithologist) and one whose name ornithologists all remember, as it was immortalized by Audubon in the name of a new species of sparrow discovered in Labrador. This Thomas Lincoln died at the age of seventy-one on his birthday, March 27, in 1883.

https://archive.org/stream/inaudubonslab...n_djvu.txt

However: Ebay is selling this portrait under the heading: “Thomas Lincoln, American farmer, father, families, relatives, President Abraham Lincoln,1860”

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Thomas-Lincoln...46287c7956

[L Verge]

And, unfortunately, the eBay sale will perpetuate incorrect history because no one will take the time to do research and authenticateor disprove the item.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Ebay is selling this portrait under the heading: “Thomas Lincoln, American farmer, father, families, relatives, President Abraham Lincoln,1860”

That's actually fraud, isn't it?

[L Verge]

Ebay is selling this portrait under the heading: “Thomas Lincoln, American farmer, father, families, relatives, President Abraham Lincoln,1860”

That's actually fraud, isn't it?

IMO, it is definitely fraud, but who is going to file a case against the seller? The "wonderful" world of technology has created many legal issues such as this. There has yet to be a concerted effort to address the copyright issues that have been created by the internet.

[RJNorton]

Even the accepted photo of Thomas Lincoln has been debated. One specialist in historical clothing has stated that the man's jacket sleeve width was indicative of the late 1850's. Thomas Lincoln died January 17, 1851, at the age of 73. Thus, if this clothing expert is correct, there is at least some reason to question this photo as it would have been taken after Thomas Lincoln's death.

[Eva Elisabeth]

I can't remember having seen this before:
http://lincolnmythsandrumors.house-of-ly...ntage.html