Peoria Museum Acquires Original 1858 Lincoln Ambrotype

The Peoria Riverfront Museum has acquired an original 1858 glass-plate ambrotype of Abraham Lincoln, the only known photograph of him taken in Peoria; the image was made while he was there preparing to debate Stephen Douglas. Separately, a signed 1864 portrait of Lincoln that he donated to a Massachusetts fundraising effort for Union soldiers’ families resurfaced in a family home and sold at auction for $149,020. Another historical image, long cataloged as an unidentified crowd scene, was recognized by National Archives archivist Josephine Cobb in 1952 as showing Lincoln at the 1863 dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg.