Portrait of Abraham Lincoln, 1860

A head and shoulders portrait of Abraham Lincoln facing right is one of three photographs that Alexander Hesler made on Sunday June 3, 1860. It was shortly after Lincoln's nomination as the Republican Party's candidate for president, at their convention held May 16-18, 1860 in Chicago. Lincoln was back in Springfield, Illinois attending to his law practice when Republican Party officials asked Hesler of Chicago to make photographs for the election campaign. Hesler traveled to the Illinois state capital with his cumbersome photographic equipment to make these portraits.

This photographic print was accompanied by a brochure titled Original Photographs of Abraham Lincoln Published by George B. Ayres, Artist, Philadelphia, and stamped "Doll & Richards Incorporated Boston." The brochure describes this photograph and one other of Lincoln at the same sitting by Alexander Hesler. The photographic prints were being offered for sale by George B. Ayers of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In about 1897, he made this albumen photographic print from the original 1860 glass plate negative.