BRUNSWICK, ME.- The Bowdoin College Museum of Art announced the acquisition of a rare vintage photograph of Abraham Lincolns first inaugural. Acquired at auction in October and attributed to the Scottish-American photographer Alexander Gardner (1821-1882), it shows a large crowd gathered outside the east side of the U.S. Capitol March 4, 1861 to attend Lincolns swearing-in.
Only two other copies of this photograph are known to existnow in the collections of the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution.
It is an important work not simply because of its rarity, but also for the moment that it depicts.
As the Civil War began less than six weeks later, it sheds light on a pivotal time in our nations history. Already seven states had seceded from the Union, and the atmosphere in Washington was tense, as rumors swirled of an assassination plot. During his speech that day Lincoln called for unity and stated a desire to address the differences that then divided the country.
The 1861 Inaugural was also significant because it was the first that photographers had ever captured. The so-called media moment, or the tradition of photographing politicians and other celebrities in public, was born here. Several thousand people witnessed the event that day, though many more saw it after an engraving based on this photograph circulated in the pages of Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper.
Of special interest to Maine, Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Paris, Maine, served as Lincolns vice president and was present that day. Winslow Homer was also in Washington then and created a double-page engraving of this same scene for Leslies rival Harpers Weekly. Homers engraving will also be displayed at this program.
In 1861, Alexander Gardner was the chief photographer at Mathew Bradys gallery in Washington. During the Civil War, Gardner broke new ground by exploring the documentary potential of photography.
His two-volume Gardners Photographic Sketch Book of the War (1866)which included 100 photographswas the first American book to use photographs alongside written text to relate a narrative. Whereas his photographic peers were largely working within the confines of their studios, Gardner was a trailblazer for taking his camera outdoors to photograph the wider world.