Museum Finds: Remembering President Lincoln on the anniversary of his death

This is an occasional series showcasing interesting pieces in area museums or highlighting the stories behind them.

Thursday, April 15 marks the 156th anniversary of the death of President Abraham Lincoln.

This portrait of Lincoln, on view online at the Chrysler Museum of Art, was taken by Alexander Gardner on Nov. 8, 1863, several days before another life-defining moment. On Nov. 19, Lincoln traveled to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to give remarks transitioning one of the bloodiest battlefields of the Civil War into a national cemetery.

Lincoln finished his speech with “a government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” in a little over two minutes. It’s been said that the president’s Gettysburg address was so short that cameramen in the audience didn’t have time to set up and capture a good image of him before he sat. The speech is still considered one of the most important in history.

Gardner had immigrated from Scotland in 1856 and quickly established himself as a portraitist in the new field of photography. But he was an on-the-ground photographer during the war and took some of the most iconic images of the aftermath of the battles of Gettysburg and the ruins of Richmond after the war. He was also present at Lincoln’s Gettysburg speech. On July 7, 1865, Gardner was also there at the execution of three of the men and one woman who had been found guilty of conspiracy in Lincoln’s murder. He photographed their hangings as well.

This image is not on display but can be viewed online with other Lincoln images and artworks at Chrysler.emuseum.com. Other Civil War images can be searched on the site, too.

Denise M. Watson, 757-446-2504, denise.watson@pilotonline.com