Abraham Lincoln With Tad Photo, Meserve Printed & Collected

A photographic print of 16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) and his youngest son Thomas "Tad" Lincoln III (1853-1871), printed sometime in the early 20th century, from the personal collection of world-renowned Lincoln collector Frederick H. Meserve (1865-1962). The original photo depicting Lincoln seated across from scrappy son Tad, who stands jauntily in a modified military uniform at his left, was taken by Alexander Gardner on February 5, 1865. Inscribed and numbered in pencil by Meserve verso as "95" which corresponds with the numbering system he first developed for his privately published volume, "The Photographs of Abraham Lincoln" (1911). Expected surface wear including minor edge silvering, else near fine. 2.125" x 3.25."

Meserve described the sourcing of this Lincoln portrait, as with others like it in this particular collection, with the following statement: "The photographic portraits [have been] printed from the original negatives or from negatives made from the original negatives." Thus these photos can be considered as Type II or Type IV photographs. Meserve described this Lincoln portrait as "a photograph by Alexander Gardner, April 9, 1865, with the second son Thomas, or 'Tad.'" Two inconsistencies in Meserve's description can be noted: first, Tad was the fourth son in birth order, not the second son; and second, modern Lincoln scholars contend that this portrait was actually taken two months earlier, on February 5, 1865, ten weeks before Lincoln's assassination.`

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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