Lincoln "Penny Profile" Type II Photo After Original Brady Negative, Frederick Meserve Collected & Inscribed

A Type II portrait photograph of 16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), directly printed from the Mathew Brady Gallery original negative, ca. 1910, from the personal collection of world-renowned Lincoln collector Frederick H. Meserve (1865-1962). The photo is housed in construction paper wrappers, signed in the third person and inscribed in Meserve's hand as: "Abraham Lincoln / A direct print from the / original negative by / Brady. 1864. Now in / the Collection of F.H. Meserve. New York." The sepia-colored photograph is hand-stamped "Collection / Of / Americana / Frederick H. Meserve / 265 Edgecombe Avenue / New York City" verso. Isolated corner and edge craquelure and wrinkles. Minor silvering, else near fine and quite crisp and sharp. The actual size of the photo is 2.5" x 3.75." The slotted inner wrapper and the annotated double-hole punched outer wrappers, show expected wear and measure 9.125" x 13."

The original portrait shows a seated Abraham Lincoln presenting his right profile. It was initially taken on February 9, 1864 in Washington, D.C. by Anthony Berger (born 1832, active 1860s), the manager of Mathew Brady's Gallery. It is referred to as the "Penny Profile" because engraver Victor David Brenner partly modeled the 1909 Lincoln cent after this image.

A German émigré, Anthony Berger started working for Mathew Brady's photographic studio around 1855. His duties included converting photographic images into oil paintings and overseeing photography sessions. By the 1860s, he had become the manager of Brady's National Portrait Gallery. Mathew Brady (1822-1896) dominated antebellum and Civil War-era American photography. An established photographer, Brady became even more well-known for his celebrity photographs and his gruesome battlefield photographs.

Frederick H. Meserve was a preeminent collector of Lincoln and Civil War era photography, ephemera, maps, and books. He began collecting Lincolniana in 1897, with the intention of illustrating his father's Civil War diary. In the early 1900s, Meserve acquired 10,000 original Brady negatives including seven Lincoln portraits. Meserve continued collecting Lincoln likenesses, as well as photos of Lincoln's contemporaries, over the next sixty years. He eventually amassed a collection of 200,000 pieces including some previously "lost" or unknown images of Lincoln. Meserve's collection was so esteemed for its completeness that he essentially became the custodian of "Lincoln's image." Meserve was approached by medal and currency engravers, as well as by the sculptors of Lincoln's Memorial Monument, for direct access to his presidential photographs. In 2015, the Meserve-Kunhardt Collection was acquired by the Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (New Haven, Connecticut.)

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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