Abraham Lincoln
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Object Details
- Artist
- Alexander Gardner, 17 Oct 1821 - 10 Dec 1882
- Sitter
- Abraham Lincoln, 12 Feb 1809 - 15 Apr 1865
- Exhibition Label
- This object exemplifies the means by which a photographic image was produced on paper: the glass-plate negative that was the “film” of early photography. Because of their fragility, surviving glass-plate negatives of this size (the so-called “imperial”) are rare: this is one of two of Lincoln that have survived and dates from his August 9, 1863, sitting at Gardner’s Washington studio. The process Gardner used was relatively new to America and consisted of hand-coating a glass plate with collodion—a syrupy mixture of guncotton dissolved in alcohol and ether to which bromide and iodine salts had been added. The difficulty for the photographer was that the glass plate had to be coated with collodion, sensitized in a bath of silver nitrate, and exposed in the camera immediately, while the emulsion was still damp. Gardner was acknowledged as a master in evenly coating the plate, which resulted in prints of exceptional clarity.
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of the James Smithson Society, CBS Television Network, and James Macatee
- 1863
- Object number
- NPG.83.129
- Restrictions & Rights
- CC0
- Type
- Photographic Negative
- Medium
- Wet collodion negative
- Dimensions
- Image: 43.5 × 33 cm (17 1/8 × 13")
- Plate: 50.7 × 43.2 cm (19 15/16 × 17")
- See more items in
- National Portrait Gallery Collection
- Location
- Currently not on view
- National Portrait Gallery
- Topic
- Home Furnishings\Furniture\Seating\Chair
- Printed Material\Book
- Costume\Dress Accessory\Eyeglasses
- Home Furnishings\Furniture\Table
- Costume\Jewelry\Chain
- Costume\Dress Accessory\Handkerchief
- Personal Attribute\Facial Hair\Beard
- Costume\Dress Accessory\Neckwear\Tie\Bowtie
- Interior\Studio\Photography
- Abraham Lincoln: Male
- Abraham Lincoln: Law and Crime\Lawyer
- Abraham Lincoln: Military and Intelligence\Soldier
- Abraham Lincoln: Politics and Government\President of US
- Abraham Lincoln: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Environmentalist
- Abraham Lincoln: Business and Finance\Businessperson\Merchant
- Abraham Lincoln: Politics and Government\US Congressman\Illinois
- Abraham Lincoln: Politics and Government\Government official\Surveyor
- Abraham Lincoln: Politics and Government\State Senator\Illinois
- Abraham Lincoln: Politics and Government\Government official\Postmaster
- Abraham Lincoln: Crafts and Trades\Boat builder
- Portrait
- Record ID
- npg_NPG.83.129
- Metadata Usage (text)
- CC0
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm482cdaff5-7029-48fb-b08e-2f68672f0857
Related Content
This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Open Access page.
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