--- title: Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address Seen in Rare Photo description: The picture was taken on March 4, 1861, and was recently rediscovered. But who was behind the camera? canonical: https://time.com/4510644/photo-first-inaugural-abraham-lincoln/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-05T12:30:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:04:24.197Z article:section: History og:title: Rare Photograph Shows Abraham Lincoln Delivering His First Inaugural Address og:description: The picture was taken on March 4, 1861, and was recently rediscovered og:url: https://time.com/4510644/photo-first-inaugural-abraham-lincoln/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbbcceb964b7ba325/6988a7d3a988ca87056b9924/first-ingugural-of-abraham-lincoln.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Abraham Lincoln Inaugural og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rare Photograph Shows Abraham Lincoln Delivering His First Inaugural Address twitter:description: The picture was taken on March 4, 1861, and was recently rediscovered twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbbcceb964b7ba325/6988a7d3a988ca87056b9924/first-ingugural-of-abraham-lincoln.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Rare Photograph Shows Abraham Lincoln Delivering His First Inaugural Address > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=a6f2fda1-841b-49fc-84ea-c6f9ac2f988b&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=a6f2fda1-841b-49fc-84ea-c6f9ac2f988b&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Being Mr. Lincoln [Watch (HLS stream): Being Mr. Lincoln](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/WRYTjk8N.m3u8) (4:00)  _Published 2009-02-09. Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday means brisk business for Lincoln impersonators like Fritz Klein_  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Oct 5, 2016 12:30 PM UTC  The first inaugural of Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1861. The first inaugural of Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1861. Courtesy of Sotheby's  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Oct 5, 2016 12:30 PM UTC You probably can’t see him, but Abraham Lincoln is there, under that portico in the picture above, delivering his first inaugural address—the [famous](https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trt039.html) speech in which he attempted to address the ever-more-urgent matter of slavery and [exhorted](http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th%5Fcentury/lincoln1.asp) the people of the United States to remember that the “mystic chords of memory” could still “swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” Also present on that day in March of 1861 was the unnamed photographer who took this image. An exceedingly rare salt print of the picture—an original from the time of the negative—is now available for the public to see, as it goes to [auction](http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2016/photographs-n09558.html) at Sotheby’s on Friday after being recently rediscovered in a private archive. Documentary photography in the United States did not really come into its own[ until the Civil War](http://time.com/3791584/150-years-later-picturing-the-battle-of-antietam/), says Emily Bierman, a senior specialist at Sotheby’s. Though there were certainly[ some photographers](http://time.com/national-parks/) making work out of doors in the years before the war—a challenge given the heavy equipment required—few were up to the challenge, especially when the situation called for large crowds and tight security, as would have been in the case in Washington on that day. “There likely would have been cameras set up throughout the crowd and from further distances away, but to capture a scene of this elegant composure out of doors, in the elements, was still extremely rare at the time,” Bierman says. So who was that mysterious photographer? “That’s a wonderful and tricky question,” she explains, “as is often the case for 19th century photographs.” When the photograph was used as a reference for an etching that appeared in _Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper_—which is one of the ways we know that Lincoln would have been giving his speech when the picture was taken, as the artist made sure to make the new President clear—it was attributed to George Stacy, but the format is not one that’s often associated with his work. Later versions were attributed to Alexander Gardner, which Bierman says would make more sense but cannot be absolutely proved. “Gardner was a photographer who was phenomenally talented,” she says. “No other photographer took Lincoln’s likeness as many times.” [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) The print is expected to sell for up to $30,000. ## Transcript >> My friends-- no one, not in my situation can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. >> February 12th marks the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. It's a busy time for Lincoln impersonators; Fritz Klein is one of them. He's at Springfield's Great Western Depot delivering the address Lincoln gave as he left for the White House in February 1861. >> Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you and be every where for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. Are we all right? >> Yes. >> Okay. I don't really attempt to distinguish myself from the other guys in any sense, and in fact I actually try to not pay any attention to what the others are doing. I've never watched any of their programs because I want to be original. I just had to do the very best that I can. [ unk ]. >> Lighter sound at the moment. >> For here I go to the caterer and then I go up to Chicago for the rest of the week. And I'll be in [ unk ] College on Saturday, synagogue on Sunday, back in another school in Chicago on Monday, in Peoria on Tuesday and Springfield on Wednesday. >> Usually Klein does about 250 performances a year, many of them at schools. >> I was involved in landscaping and I was involved in an annual pageant about old Hawaii in the community, and so one of the role I played was a character in 1820s, I've had long- coat and tap hat, and so they said, " You can do Lincoln ." I didn't think I could but I could. >> He explored various aspects of Lincoln's legacy like slavery, how Lincoln rose from poverty and he got the nickname, Honest Abe. >> You know what? They started putting it newspaper, why? People, clean on California, we're reading about how I was telling the truth, that's how I finally got elected to be President. >> He tries to convey Lincoln's core values like integrity, equality and hard work. >> You can be a good worker, you can make yourself study, you can show up on time when you're supposed to be somewhere; there's lots of things you can do and you know what, that's what makes the difference, the things you can do. People would write phonetically the way he sounded like they would say he had a nasal quality to his voice, his higher pitch, he would pronounce [ unk ] and say overbar instead of overbear, fur instead of four, and it were very corny and a little [ unk ], his voice kind of a trumpet quality to it and people [ unk ] sounding, you know, so I incorporated some other things into my [ unk ]. But there are things that were written down. I kind of bring out the highlights. To His care commending you, as I trust in your prayers you will commend me. 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