shorn

Wikipedia says Ambrotypes took 40-60 seconds to get a proper exposure. I don't think I could have kept completely still like in Abe's pose for that whole time.

Preston Butler certainly captured the attitude and a *spark* of humor in those eyes...

he looks so much younger here

They sometimes say that in modern times Lincoln wouldn't stand a chance in presidential elections because of his looks. But he sure was aware that he should look statesman-like in a picture :) -- Seen on your photo stream. (?)

Wow, he looks so much like Greg Malone, the Newfoundland actor/politician. www.heritage.nf.ca/arts/codcogroup_detail.html Greg is the man in the middle.

They always say Lincoln was a homely man. I would say he was quite handsome here. Can you see the seeds of greatness here?

I think this is a very nice picture of president Abraham Lincoln. He looks great in this picture. We must thank Shepherd, Nicholas H., the photographer for taking this picture of the president. The picture of the president is a great memory of a great man!

Lincoln was a tyrant.

idswart, lincoln probably was a tyrant. wikipedia outlines the most basic aspects of this, saying he: "suspended the writ of habeas corpus, spent money before Congress appropriated it, and imprisoned 18,000 suspected Confederate sympathizers without trial." Lincoln violated the rule of law, the constitution, the human rights of thousands - to a much greater extent than any president that came before him. the very troubling thing is that out of this tyranny, and perhaps even because of this tyranny, the even greater tyranny of slavery was ended. when we look at Lincoln we see an incredibly complicated figure who challenges our ideas of what is just and what is right from many different directions. it does depend somewhat on your definition of tyranny though. Lincoln never declared himself emperor or king or president-for-life, which is usually what people think of when they think of tyrants. this is why even though Lincoln violated the constitution and trampled on rights throughout the course of the civil war, it is difficult to put him in the same class as Napoleon or Mao.

I agree with most of what you had to say, but I believe that the original Constitutional Republic built by our founding fathers ceased to be after the end of the War Between the States.

You can see the yrs wearing on him here from the previous picture.

Whoa...he looks so strange in this one!

Mr. Lincoln kind of looks like my uncle Gary in this photo... I'll have to find a shot of my uncle...

Can anyone explain the one-sided collar and the way the tie ends on his right?

Boats-n-cars... it looks like the collar is all there... but a stain on the photograph is clearly more noticable, therefore creating an illusion of a one-sided collar and blunt ending of the tie. The stain extends into the jaw & lower cheek area also. oops.

Wow, I have never seen this one and I have seen a LOT of Lincoln images.

very cool....and again, so young looking. but i guess being president, war and the enormous amounts of stress he was obviously under will age you.

The facial expression is interesting... and he reminds me of Kramer in that photo (as in, Seinfeld).

I collected campaign buttons as a child; my requirement was that I usually received them from the candidate or at a campaign event. (I probably still have them somewhere.) I'd not seen them before from this early, though, and would be interested if anyone knows more about the provision (where they given away, free? what did they cost the campaign to make?) and use (this looks like it might have been worn on a chain?) of campaign buttons at the time. (edit: almost none of mine, most from the 1970s, had photographs on them)

I've seen hundreds of Lincoln photos, being a Civil War buff, but I've never seen this shot. Thanks for posting it.