The Lincoln Memorial was sculpted by Daniel Chester French to honor the 16th President of the United States. This photograph of French was taken in his Stockbridge, Massachusetts, studio and shows the plaster models of the Lincoln memorial. Please enjoy this Then and Now series of the memorial, long a backdrop for presidential inaugurations.

Daniel Chester French – Smithsonian Institution	Lincoln Memorial 2009 – Metal Chris
THEN	NOW

Smithsonian Institution	Smithsonian Institution
1989	1993

Inscribed above the statue in the memorial are these words:

IN THIS TEMPLE
AS IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE
FOR WHOM HE SAVED THE UNION
THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
IS ENSHRINED FOREVER

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was born 200 years ago on February 12, 1809.

The George Eastman House has a selection of Lincoln photos on exhibition to commemorate this occasion, including a newly restored glass-plate photograph from 1860, said to be the best portrait of Lincoln ever taken. Grant Romer, director of the museum’s Advanced Residency Program in Photograph Conservation, says,

We know Lincoln not because of a painting of Lincoln, not because of a statue of Lincoln, but because of photographs of Lincoln.

Check out his podcast of their Lincoln glass-plate restoration project.

Newly uploaded to Flickr in time for Abe’s birthday is a wonderful set from the Library of Congress. Curator of photography Carol Johnson has selected images that let you see how Lincoln looked over 20 years. Here’s a sampling.

Abraham Lincoln, candidate for U.S. president. Half-length portrait, seated, facing front. Photograph by Preston Butler, 1860. It is thought to be the last beardless portrait of Lincoln.

Library of Congress

Inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, March 4, 1861. “A distant photograph from a special platform by an unknown photographer, in front of the Capitol, Washington, D.C., afternoon of March 4, 1861. ‘A small camera was directly in front of Mr. Lincoln,’ reported a newspaper, ‘another at a distance of a hundred yards, and a third of huge dimensions on the right … The three photographers present had plenty of time to take pictures, yet only the distant views have survived.” (Source: Ostendorf, pp. 86–87)

Library of Congress

Abraham Lincoln, Pres’t U.S. An infamous photo, taken by Alexander Gardner in 1865, 10 weeks before his assassination. He looks far more worn in these later images, the toll of the Civil War possibly showing on his face.

Library of Congress

The latest photograph of President Lincoln — taken on the balcony at the White House, March 6, 1865 Photograph by Henry F. Warren, 1865, thought to be the last sitting portrait of Lincoln.

Library of Congress

Lincoln’s funeral on Pennsylvania Ave. The funeral procession in Washington, DC, on April 19, 1865, from the funeral at the White House to the U.S. Capitol, where Lincoln’s body laid in state until the train took him back home to Springfield, Illinois, for burial.

Library of Congress

Robert Lincoln, son of President Abraham Lincoln, half-length portrait, seated Robert Todd Lincoln was the sole child of Lincoln to live to see adulthood and die of old age. He moved back to Illinois with his mother after Lincoln’s death, attended the University of Chicago and became a lawyer, later becoming Secretary of War under President Garfield. Robert was a guest of honor at the opening ceremony of the Lincoln Memorial in 1922.

Library of Congress