Lincoln's Revelance Questioned by National Park Service

[David Lockmiller]

(09-22-2021 01:25 PM)Joe Di Cola Wrote:  The "cracked plate" image mentioned in a recent post was taken at the Alexander Gardner Gallery on February 5, 1865 and not April 10 and, in the past, was often mistakenly identified as the last photo of Lincoln. A photo taken of Lincoln, by Henry F. Warren on March 6, on the White House balcony is now thought to be the last photo taken of Lincoln alive.

Thank you for that correction. I checked the quotation from the book and it is as I quoted. The book was published in 1977.

I confirmed your correction by going to the set of photographs in Professor Burlingame's scholarly work Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Vol. TWO, page 558 following.) This collection includes two photographs of President Lincoln made by Alexander Gardner on February 5, 1865. The captions of the two photographs read:

Often misidentified as the final picture of Lincoln before his death, this Alexander Gardner portrait dates from February 5, 1865, a month before the last photograph of the president. In the developing process, the negative broke. Gardner simply placed the two pieces together, made one print, and disposed of the negative. (Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Springfield, Illinois.)

In this photo, taken by Alexander Gardner on February 5, 1865, Lincoln seems to radiate an inner peace, for he knew that the war would soon end. (Library of Congress.)

I would only add that the two photographs were made only a few days after the House of Representatives passed the Thirteenth Amendment legislation on January 31, 1865 and President Lincoln had responded to White House serenaders the next night in which he explained in vivid detail the importance of "this great moral victory."