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Exhibition Not an Ostrich: & Other Images from America's Library

Not an Ostrich: & Other Images from America's Library

LEWIS EMORY WALKER. Hon. Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States. February 1865

Lewis E. (Lewis Emory) Walker. Hon. Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States. E. & H.T. Anthony: [Washington, D.C.: E. & H.T. Anthony], February 1865. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (34.00.00)
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LEWIS EMORY WALKER. Hon. Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States. February 1865

Lincoln’s short haircut was perhaps suggested by his barber to facilitate the making of his life mask by the sculptor Clark Mills. Lincoln knew from a prior experience how long hair could cling to the plaster used to make an impression of his features. This stereograph, long attributed to the famous photographer Mathew Brady, is now correctly attributed to Lewis Emory Walker, a government photographer.