The Physical Lincoln: A58eg1

From Lincolnwiki

Print: Library of Congress Has hardcopy: Yes as of 2007-04. Print: Mellon p29 Caption: (p28) Original ambrotype made by Abraham Byers, in Beardstown, Illinois, May 7, 1858. Collection: University of Nebraska. Observations: The quality of this image in Mellon's book is a wonder to behold. Mellon and Benson copied the original ambrotype, which then was clearly in spectacular condition. In late 2007 the University of Nebraska emailed to me a freshly made scan of the original ambrotype. It showed a tragic degradation of the original image in the 32 years since Mellon's book was published, with chunks of the image missing and the contrast woefully reduced. I wrote to them, urging all steps be taken to prevent further degradation, but received no reply. Print: Kunhardt p87 Observations:

<= a58dy   a58eg2 => A58eg1 Photographer Byers Location Beardstown, IL Sitting 1858-05-07 Technique Ambrotype Meserve # 7 Ostendorf # 5 Ostendorf pg 15 Mellon pg 29 Kunhardt pg 87 Synonym none AL ML RL TL WL XL <= a58dy a58eg2 =>   Ostendorf3 Ambrotype by Abraham M. Byers, Beardstown, Friday, May 7, 1858.

Ostendorf3

Byers actually took two ambrotypes of Lincoln during this sitting. He kept one (which now belongs to the University of Nebraska) and the other was published by Ida Tarbell in McClure's Magazine in 1895. They are so similar that Ostendorf3 classifies them as a single pose (p 14).