Lot 71 email save

LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURAL

Sign In to see what this sold for

LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL. 6 7/8” x 9 ½” albumen print on a tan board mount. There are several variants of this subject, usually attributed to Alexander Gardner. This is the rarest and most desirable one that shows Lincoln actually delivering his speech. There is an imprint on the back for Clarence Dodge, Photographer, 106 G. Street Southeast, Washington DC. This doesn’t have the character of a copy print. Since there were several variants of this event, taken minutes apart, it is unlikely that Gardner himself could have operated the camera himself for all these variants. Dodge, a Washington photographer, might have been the camera operator for this important event, and now was issuing the image with his own imprint. Lloyd Ostendorf, in “Lincoln in Photographs” (1998) comments on this photograph that it is “probably” by Alexander Gardner. “Neither Gardner nor Brady copyrighted any pictures of the inauguration, but this and other views are usually considered Gardner’s work.” (p. 208.) The print is slightly light, very light in the lower left, with some soil. The lower left corner of the mount is broken, but not into the print, and there is a bend in the upper right mount corner. [2]

View Be-Hold next auction.

Similar lots up for auction