BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – On Friday, Feb. 6, a display in The Ames Library (1 Ames Plaza, Bloomington) became the temporary home of two Abraham Lincoln photographic reproductions on loan from Illinois Wesleyan alumnus George Allison, Class of 1951.
The prints will join other Lincoln memorabilia, including faculty meeting minutes that announce the University’s closure for the 16th president’s funeral in Springfield, Ill., in the display commemorating Lincoln’s 200th birthday.
The images, which depict a beardless Lincoln posing pre-election at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, were taken by Alexander Hesler on June 3, 1860. “They confirm the power of the man himself,” said Allison. “When you look at his picture, you can see the integrity and the determination of the man even then. You can imagine the effect he must have had on his contemporaries and realize why the images are called the ‘pictures that elected a president.’”
Over 100 years after Hesler made the original glass wet-plate collodion negative, which was damaged beyond repair in 1933 during transit to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C., Allison acquired prints of the photograph from his friend, the late King Hostick, a historical document dealer and Lincoln specialist.