Seed Pearl Necklace and Bracelets

[Gene C]

Thanks for posting the abeandmarydag site Susan in your post #34.

Interesting to read why the defender of the photograph believes the "experts" are wrong, and that it is a photo of Abraham and Mary together.

If I were to defend the photo, I might argue that the height difference between Abraham and Mary was offset by the photographer by having Mary sit on a stool or seat that minimized that difference. The lack of a mole or wart on Lincoln's face is because Mary, in an act of vanity and because it was a histoirc inauguration photo, had it covered up by makeup or air brushed out of the original print.

In defense of Mary and her dress, she looks older than she is at the time the photo was taken due to stress. She probably didn't sleep much the night before, excited about her life long dream coming true, and at the same time worried about the safety of her husband. Something obviously must have happened to her original dress, someone may have spilled something on it, it got ruined when she slipped in the muddy streets, we will probably never know. She unhappily has to wear an unsuitable substitute for this picture,
Mary is so unhappy with her appearance in the photo that to avoid one of her famous temper tantrums, Lincoln has all negatives and prints destroyed, and this historic picture never reaches public circulation. This one is tucked away and never sees the light of day, forgotten to history, until it was recently discovered.


But, the owners of the picture have overlooked the possibility that this photo is more valuable than a picture of the Lincoln's on Inauguration Day. It is not a picture of Abraham and Mary at all, it is a picture of their substitutes. Worried about potential assassination plots, like the one in Baltimore, Pinkerton, Lamon and General Willard Scott (or is Winfield?) have a decoy Abraham and Mary appear in key places around Washington to draw attention away from the real Abraham and Mary. . Concerned about assassination attempts to keep Lincoln from being inaugurated and throwing the government into turmoil, this photo is not Abraham and Mary, but of their unknown, up until now, substitutes. In the excitement and confusion of the day, it is the decoy couple that mistakenly gets taken to be photographed for this historic event. Evidently Pinkerton's secret plan worked so well it has taken over 150 years for this deception to become revealed.

Then again, I could be wrong about this.