Lincoln Mary




Mary Todd Lincoln, Brady Carte de Visite  

Mathew Brady carte de visite depicting First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882) wearing a flowered dress similar to her 1861 inaugural dress, ca. 1861. Sepia toned albumen print mounted on cream stock card. Stamped verso "Brady's National Photographic Portrait Galleries / No. 352 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C. and Broadway & Tenth St., N.Y." In near fine condition. Overall 2.375" x 4". From the collection of Harold Holzer, the noted Lincoln historian.  

In this Brady portrait, Mary Todd Lincoln is shown wearing a ball gown similar in palette and style to that of her girlishly ruffled inaugural dress. At that event, the First Lady had debuted a spectacular Tiffany & Co. demi-parure seed pearl jewelry suite comprised of a choker necklace and pair of matching bracelets. She wears the suite again here; the jewels can be seen above her low-cut neckline and generous cream skirts adorned with printed floral bouquets. The 3-piece set was gifted to the Library of Congress in 1937.  

Lincoln had gained a reputation as a fashion trendsetter during her husband's tenure at the White House. The First Lady loved clothes and accessories, high-quality fabrics cut in the latest style and often modeled after French Empress Eugenie. She employed former slave Elizabeth Keckley as a private fashion designer and dressmaker. Lincoln consistently overspent her allowances and concealed the true extent of her expenditure from her husband. Her extravagance was probably motivated in part by mental imbalance, yet it also showed her acute awareness of image and status. Mary Todd Lincoln took seriously her position as First Lady; she believed that her husband's administration was represented as much through her personal dress, or the redecoration of the White House, as it was by his public policies. Abraham Lincoln evidently agreed to some extent, as he spent $2,000 on Mary's first inaugural dress and $530 on her jewelry.  

Mathew Brady (1822-1896) dominated antebellum and Civil War-era American photography. An established photographer, Brady became even more well-known for his celebrity photographs (like this one) and his gruesome battlefield photographs.  

Provenance: From the collection of preeminent Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer (born 1949). A historian specializing in Lincoln and the Civil War era, Holzer has authored, co-authored, and edited 52 books; his Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion won the 2015 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize. Holzer has done much to popularize Lincoln studies by frequently appearing on radio and television. Much of Holzer's work explores Lincoln's speeches, debates, and public image.  



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