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Lincoln’s Portrait
Status: Fake (composite)
Technique of Fakery: Composite Images, Drawn-in Details.
Date and Time Period: Late 1860s; (Before 1900)
Themes: Head Transplants, Politics, Striking a Pose

The standing portrait of Lincoln (left) was created soon after the American Civil War. Although it hung in many classrooms, Lincoln never posed for it. Instead, an unknown entrepreneur created it by cutting-and-pasting a headshot of Lincoln taken from a photograph by Mathew Brady (middle) onto a portrait of the Southern leader John Calhoun (right). This was done because there were hardly any appropriate ‘heroic-style’ portraits of Lincoln made during his life. In the Calhoun image, the papers on the table say “strict constitution,” “free trade,” and “the sovereignty of the states.” In the Lincoln image, these words have been changed to read, “constitution,” “union,” and “proclamation of freedom.”
References:
MacDougall, C. (1958, 2nd ed.). Hoaxes. Dover Publications: 80.
Mitchell, W.J. (1992). The Reconfigured Eye. MIT Press: 204-208.
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The Martyr Lincoln
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Dickens in America

All text Copyright © 2011 by Alex Boese, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.