Press Image, "Shooting Lincoln: Photography and the Sixteenth President". On view at the Chrysler Museum of Art February 10, 2015-June 14, 2015. Abraham Lincoln November 8, 1863 Alexander Gardner Platinum print Gift of David L. Hack and by exchange Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Chrysler Museum of Art #98.32.310
Press Image, "Shooting Lincoln: Photography and the Sixteenth President". On view at the Chrysler Museum of Art February 10, 2015-June 14, 2015. Abraham Lincoln November 8, 1863 Alexander Gardner Platinum print Gift of David L. Hack and by exchange Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Chrysler Museum of Art #98.32.310. Ed Pollard
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Abraham Lincoln, 1864 Anthony Berger—Courtesy of the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va

Though photography was still in its infancy, Abraham Lincoln by the end of his presidency had sat for nearly 100 portraits. According to Richard Lowry, author of the forthcoming book The Photographer and the President (Rizzoli 2015), that makes him one of the most photographed figures of the entire 19th century.

In exploring Lincoln’s unique relationship with the camera, Lowry focuses in on the work of early war photographer Alexander Gardner, and writes that together they “changed the way their generation saw, and thus ultimately how they experienced the Civil War… In time [Lincoln] framed a new vision for the nation.” Gardner, he adds, “portrayed the president with an increasingly sophisticated subtlety,” and forever changed how we engage with and remember our leaders.

With the approaching 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War and the first assassination of an American president, the Chrysler Museum in Virginia has mounted the exhibition, “Shooting Lincoln: Photography and the Sixteenth President,” featuring many of the most iconic and sometimes unseen early presidential photographs as well as some of the very first war photography ever made (slide 4).

Though he was known to be self-conscious about his own appearance (hence the beard) “Abraham Lincoln was not camera-shy,” says Alex Mann, curator of the exhibition. “Lincoln the Great Emancipator, Lincoln the Commander-in-Chief, Lincoln the family man—cameras captured every face of Honest Abe.”

“Each of these images has multiple stories,” he adds. “The story of Lincoln, of the photographers who made these works, and of the citizens who originally purchased and collected them. Our research continues, just as these photos and Lincoln’s heroism continue to inspire new generations.”

“Shooting Lincoln: Photography and the Sixteenth President” is on view at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, VA through July 5, 2015.

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Tad and Abraham Lincoln, 1865 Alexander Gardner—Courtesy of the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va
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President Lincoln on Battle-field of Antietam, 1862 Alexander Gardner—Courtesy of the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va
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Field Where General Reynolds Fell, Gettysburg, 1863 Timothy H. O’Sullivan—Courtesy of the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va
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President Lincoln’s Box at Ford’s Theater, 1865 Courtesy of the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va
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Lincoln’s Funeral Hearse, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1865 Alexander Wilson Henszey—Courtesy of the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va
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Adjusting the Ropes, Execution of Lincoln Conspirators, 1865 Alexander Gardner—Courtesy of the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va
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Abraham Lincoln, 1863 Alexander Gardner—Courtesy of the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va
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