Abraham Lincoln, Mathew Brady, 1860
Abraham Lincoln was just a one-term Congressman from Illinois when he came to deliver a speech at the Cooper Union in New York City in 1860. He knew that the speech had to be perfect but he was also concerned about his image. He went to the Broadway photography studio of Mathew B. Brady. He set the gangly rail splitter in a statesmanlike pose, tightened his shirt collar to hide his long neck and retouched the image to improve his looks. In a click of a shutter, Brady dispelled talk of what Lincoln said were “rumors of my long ungainly figure … making me into a man of human aspect and dignified bearing.”