Lincoln Abraham

Lincoln and Son Albumen Print from Holzer Collection

 

This 1865 albumen photograph of Abraham Lincoln and his son Tad was owned by prominent Lincolniana Collector Harold Holzer.

 

“President Lincoln and His Son Thaddeus, The last Photograph the President sat for.” albumen photograph, 6.25" x 8.25", on original mount with printed caption, 10.5" x 13.5". Boston: G. F. Bouvé & Co., 1865.  Minor foxing.

 

Historical Background

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln brought forth hundreds of different commemorative printed items. This print uses a February 1865 photograph of Lincoln and his son Thomas “Tad” Lincoln, here misidentified as “Thaddeus.” On February 5, 1865, Lincoln sat for a variety of photographs in the Washington, D.C., studio of Alexander Gardner, including some with son Tad. It was his last studio portrait sitting.

 

This photograph was taken before a bare wall, and the printmaker has added curtains, a column, a fountain, trees, a ship on the Potomac River, and a partially completed Washington monument in the background to make it appear to be a scene from the Executive Mansion.

 

George F. Bouvé (1837-1898) operated a publishing business in Boston in the 1860s, became a leather dealer in 1870, and a shoe manufacturer in 1887. This image originally sold for $1 and was also sold in carte de visite format for 25 cents.

 

Provenance: This piece is from the collection of Harold Holzer (b. 1949), a prominent Lincoln scholar and collector of Lincolniana. He is the author or editor of fifty-two books, most on Abraham Lincoln, and specializes in representations of Lincoln in visual culture. Holzer was senior vice president for public affairs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from 1992 to 2015 and served as co-chair of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission from 2000 to 2010.

 

 

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