Photograph
| Abraham Lincoln's assassination produced a series of photographs taken by Alexander Gardner which were considered the last ones. These photographs were allegedly taken on Monday, April 10, 1865. However, this information appears to be incorrect. According to Lincoln's secretaries, John Hay and John Nicolay, the actual last photographs were taken on the White House's south balcony by photographer Henry F. Warren of Waltham, Massachusetts. This information is stated in their Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln which was published in 1894. Also, Matthew Wilson's diary states that the Gardner photographs were actually made on Sunday, February 5, 1865. Wilson was a portrait painter who had accompanied Lincoln to Gardner's studio to provide a model for a portrait Wilson painted afterwards. The picture at the top of the page is one of those made by Warren on the White House's south balcony during the late afternoon of Monday, March 6, 1865. Warren took three pictures: one of Lincoln standing and two sitting. The seated poses were made on a chair which Lincoln himself carried out and placed on the balcony. One of those is pictured at the top. The standing pose is lost. The original negatives from all three poses are lost. Lincoln's ruffled hair is at least partially due to the wind on the balcony. The Warren photograph is from the Lloyd Ostendorf collection. |
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Source: Roger Norton's Abraham Lincoln Research Site
http://members.aol.com/RVSNorton/Lincoln2.html