Portrait of Abraham Lincoln, Springfield, Illinois, 1846-1847

Abraham Lincoln successfully ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from the state of Illinois in 1846. Nicholas H. Shepherd made the original daguerreotype for this image in Springfield, Illinois, shortly after Lincoln's election to Congress. It is believed by many to be the earliest known image of Lincoln, who was 37 or 38 years old when it was taken. At this time, Lincoln was a husband and father of two small boys, had a successful law practice in Springfield, and had just become a junior member of Congress.

Daguerreotype images like this one are one-of-a-kind photographs made on a silver-coated copper plate. In order to make photographic prints, a copy negative had to be made from the original daguerreotype. This photographic print was made in the early 20th century from a 19th century copy negative. In 1902, Frederick Hill Meserve, an early collector of photography, found glass negatives from Mathew B. Brady's Washington, D.C., studio in a Hoboken, New Jersey, warehouse. Meserve carefully preserved the negatives and made the later photographic prints of the earlier images -- including this photographic print in our collection.