From the November 16, 2007 issue of USA Today comes the exciting news that an amateur historian may have made the find of his life: a "new" photo of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg! Mr. John Richter of Hanover, Pennsylvania had been researching the online database of Gettysburg photos on the Library of Congress website and thought he noticed Lincoln in a crowd scene in two different stereoviews.
After seeking a file enlargement, Richter continues to believe that the scene does indeed show Lincoln in the crowd. Eminent Lincoln authority Harold Holzer is also of the opinion that the figure in the stereoviews is Lincoln. If proven, these would be only the second and third photos known to exist of Lincoln at Gettysburg. The only other known photo was discovered in 1952.
You may see more of the information, including additional photos at the link to USA Today I provided. The photo I show in this posting is widely available on the Internet now, so I believe I'm not violating any copyright.
Other posts of mine deal further with The Gettysburg Address. This link tells the story of how and why Lincoln was invited to speak at Gettysburg during the dedication ceremony. And this link details the Address and the dedication ceremony itself. If I could choose one event from history to witness, it would be of Lincoln giving his immortal speech.
UPDATE: Please see my post for a followup to this story. That post describes the conference held in Gettysburg to discuss this new find. The story also contains another view of this photo.
Well, I have a new twist to add to the Lincoln mix, legacy and story….
ReplyDelete.Three years ago today to the exact date, I decided to study the Abraham Lincoln-Stephen Douglas political debates, as historians have always said they were the definitive debates of American politics. I was doing this to teach my daughter, a young lady who was born in America, but has lived most of her life overseas, about American politics, and our system of government and how we elect our representatives and other officials. As she was actually physically conceived in a place called Lincoln, Massachusetts, these debates were a very good start. When I first saw the picture of Mr. Douglass, my jaws dropped and stayed open for a few minutes, enough to catch at least a basketball team of flies… They were a carbon copy of my best friend, an ex-patient of mine who is now, of all things an attorney. Now I was really curious. Then as I looked at, no, no way, Lincoln’s second secretary of war, Edwin McMasters Stanton, there was an exact carbon copy of my older brother. Since then I have been extensively researching and have decided on
writing a book, on “The Lincoln within Me”, a book that will be translated into Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Hindi, mostly for the Islamic world to know of our Abraham. And tell my personal story.
In my front closet for some reason, unknown to me, there was a book package, unopened since August, dated 8/8/07, and I opened it at about 4:30 PM. I saw the story on CNN at about 2:00 AM, the next day, and my jaw dropped again, maybe even my jaw is now broken from hanging open so long. The name of the book, The Lincoln Trail in Pennsylvania, by Bradley R. Hoch, A History and Guide, The Pennsylvania State University Press publishers. It is a book about all the places Lincoln went and visited during his life and even after his death in Pennsylvania.
In my humble opinion, of someone who has lived and died, slept and awoke with Lincoln books, 3-15 hours a day for three years non-stop, the photo is of Lincoln. As for the rest, well, wait for the book, for the world to be judge and jury, and then you can decide if I am.. have anything to do with Mr. Lincoln…
i'm not sure how the historian could pick out lincoln from that photo... i'm not convinced it's anything more than a guess because of the hat... regardless, it's always exciting to find new discoveries on something that yo might think has been studied and researched to death.
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