Abraham Lincoln was "the most photographed American of the 19th century".Frederick Douglass has also been said to have been the most photographed American on the 19th century. There are at least 130 known photographs of Lincoln,There are 160 of Frederick Douglass. and he was photographed multiple times by the American Civil War photographers Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner who were officially appointed to document the war. In reference to Brady's 1860 photograph, Lincoln said, “Brady and the Cooper Institute made me President.” John George Nicolay, who was Lincoln's private secretary when Lincoln became President, is quoted as saying: "Lincoln's features were the despair of every artist who undertook his portrait. ... There are many pictures of Lincoln; there is no portrait of him."
Image Date Photographer Location Technique Owner Notes or 1847 Nicholas H. Shepherd Springfield, Illinois Daguerreotype, quarter plateSotos, image A46 Library of Congress This daguerreotype is the earliest confirmed photographic image of Abraham Lincoln. It was reportedly made in 1846 by Nicholas H. Shepherd shortly after Lincoln was elected to the United States House of Representatives. Shepherd's Daguerreotype Miniature Gallery, which he advertised in the Sangamo Journal, was located in Springfield over the drug store of J. Brookie. Shepherd also studied law at the law office of Lincoln and Herndon.Library of Congress exhibit Johan Carl Frederic Polycarpus Von SchneidauBurton , 2008 Chicago, Illinois Gelatin silver print of a presumed lost daguerreotypeSotos, image A54j The second earliest known photograph of Lincoln. From a photograph owned originally by George Schneider, former editor of the Illinois Staats-Zeitung, the most influential anti-slavery German newspaper of the West. Mr. Schneider first met Mr. Lincoln in 1853, in Springfield. "He was already a man necessary to know", says Mr. Schneider. In 1854 Mr. Lincoln was in Chicago, and Isaac N. Arnold invited Mr. Schneider to dine with Mr. Lincoln. After dinner, as the gentlemen were going down town, they stopped at an itinerant photograph gallery, and Mr. Lincoln had this picture taken for Mr. Schneider.Tarbell 1896, page n19 Alexander Hessler Chicago, IllinoisSotos, image A57bzb Gelatin silver print from the lost original negative Lincoln immediately prior to his Senate nomination. The original negative was burned in the Great Chicago Fire. Amon T. Joslin Danville, Illinois AmbrotypeSotos, image A57 Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, Allen County Public Library Although some historians have dated this photograph during the court session of November 13, 1859, and others have placed it as early as 1853, most authorities now believe it was taken on May 27, 1857. The photographer Amon T. Joslin owned "Joslin's Gallery" located on the second floor of a building adjoining the Woodbury Drug Store, in Danville, IL. This was one of Lincoln's favorite stopping places in Vermilion County, Illinois, while he was a traveling lawyer. Joslin photographed Abraham Lincoln twice at this sitting. Lincoln kept one copy and gave the other to his friend, Thomas J. Hilyard, deputy sheriff of Vermilion County. Today, one original resides in the Illinois State Historical Library.Fraker 2012, Page 44October 1, 1858Calvin Jackson Pittsfield, IllinoisAmbrotypesLibrary of CongressA head-and-shoulders portrait of Lincoln, facing slightly left, taken in Pittsfield, Illinois, two weeks before the final Lincoln-Douglas debate in Lincoln's unsuccessful bid for the Senate. Roderick M. Cole Peoria, Illinois Daguerreotype (?)Sotos, image A58x3 Benjamin Shapell Family Manuscript Foundation