Rare Abraham Lincoln ambrotype has a ghastly backstory
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum has obtained an original 1858 photograph of the future president with an interesting backstory. Abraham Lincoln gave the image as a memento to a severely injured man. Lincoln stopped for a campaign rally in a western Illinois town during his campaign for the U.S. Senate against Stephen A. Douglas. Afterward, he sat for ambrotypes in a local gallery. He promised one copy to a shopkeeper who had been severely injured a day earlier while testing a cannon to be fired during the rally. It exploded accidentally and nearly severed the man’s ar...