Photo Restoration Blog

Archive for the ‘Genealogy’ Category

Could this be a new discovery of an original Daguerreotype of the young Abraham Lincoln?

A newly discovered Daguerreotype was found by Justin Whiting of, Norwich Norfolk United Kingdom, could be a new photographic piece in Abraham Lincoln’s historic life story.

Purchased on Ebay from a power seller of Daguerreotypes Justin was sure it reminded him of someone. He’d been searching for an image like this for sometime. In his mind it could be no one else other than a young Abraham Lincoln!

Was it? Could it be? At a casual glance there is a good resemblance.

Daguerreotype of young Abraham Lincoln. Shown to scale.

He set about the process verifying the image by asking American museums if they were willing to help identify the man in the image.

Abraham Lincoln in his late 30′s (left). Could this be a new discovery of an original Daguerreotype of the young Abraham Lincoln?

The Find: Justin has always had a great interest in finding photographs of famous historic figures from America.  He was taking his daily browse through “carte de visite” or visiting cards on eBay but got distracted by some daguerreotypes. He saw an interesting picture titled “1/6 daguerreotype tinted blue 1840’s”. Justin purchased the item from the e-seller ‘salvatorparadise’,  on 29/06/2011 for about $140.

The Daguerreotype  showed an extremely tall man in a fine suit. He did a some research and found matching physical details to Abraham Lincoln, like the height and body build, the way his eyes sat differently.  In the reference photographs Justin noticed Abraham Lincoln has some defining features like the large bump on his right cheek, his left eye socket was higher than the right. These all matched, even his nose and lips. Abraham Lincoln had a thin top lip and a fat bottom lip, the same seemed to be the case in the Daguerreotype.

From left Sketch, Newly discovered Abraham Lincoln Daguerreotype, Oil Painting, facial cast

He went on to discover other matching features such as Lincolns very different ears, the left side was slightly higher then the right. He also had other features such as his jaw buckled in, on the low right side and his right eye drifted towards his nose, the condition was called ‘strabismus’. It was these matching features that made him believe he was looking at a Young Abraham Lincoln. The final clue was the suit he was wearing, which was completely in  keeping with Lincolns occupation as a Lawyer..

The stormy faced scholar. At the same time there was an auction going for another daguerreotype by the same seller which he missed but managed to contact the buyer. This second image appears to be a younger Reverend Owen Lovejoy 1840. “’stormy faced scholar”. He contacted the buyer who was a bit reluctant to sell it as it had been cleaned at a considerable cost. After haggling on the phone Justin managed to obtain the photograph as well. He already knew Owen Lovejoy was a dear friend to Lincoln and that he used to read the bible to Lincoln regularly at his home. The photograph was not in the best of shape even after it was cleaned as the seals are missing. This meant it had oxidised and darkened slowly over time. The facial features are still visible as is the hairline which seems to be a very accurate match to Reverend Owen Lovejoy. The open book in the photo which symbolises the bible as it an open book. Justin believes he is making a statement that this is his passion, he is a reverend and a preacher of the bible.

Reverend Owen Lovejoy

American’s uninterested. After buying both daguerreotypes Justin contacted some museums in America to present his findings. He was excepting some very positive responses. Instead he was shunned by one museum saying it was not Lincoln and looked nothing like him. They offered no further explanation other than “his hair looks ridiculous”.  He soon realised It was not going to be easy, the American museums was very dismissive. with attitude of,  here we go another picture claiming to be Lincoln, “we get loads” they said.

Undeterred Justin decided to hunt for someone who can offer a more scientific investigation to match the facial features. The scientific road now appears to be the only answer. He has started proceedings with the facial recognition process. He asked me to help put this blog together to the message out there if anyone can help.

A personal opinion – Why i featured this on my blog?
I feel this is him based on what i can see and line up in my software. The most interesting for me is the ear print match. Ears are unique or so The National Training Centre for Scientific Support to Crime Investigation NTCSSCI says “no two ears are exactly the same”. The ear print for me is the clincher.

Sources Ear prints  – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/246713.stm

Here are two restored photos from a batch, telling the amazing story of a Toledo Steam Carriage on 871 Mile journey!

1902 Newspaper Article reads

1902

Feb: “C.E. De Long, of Hot Springs, Ark., and J.E. Saules, of Toledo, Ohio, who started from Toledo in a “Toledo” steam carriage the day before Christmas, are reported to have reached Little Rock, Ark., on the 6th (February) , having been compelled to take the train from Memphis to Hot Springs in consequence of the heavy rains which had flooded the Mississippi bottoms and made the roads impassable. They remained in Little Rock until February 10, when they proceeded on their way by automobile.”

Toledo Steam Carriage making its was 871 Miles back home in winter.

Lets look at this article in more detail. It was Christmas eve 1902. Weather for that year was cold, you can see ice on the mud puddles in the above image. It must have been below freezing! Now take a look at the distance from Toledo, Ohio to Hot Springs, Arkansas on Google and you get 871 miles. That is by modern roads! Back then the distance would have been much more. These impressive machines probably averaged around 4.1 Miles and hour on the flat without terrain and puddles and mud, hills, weather, break downs, maintenance etc. It took them the best part of 6 weeks to make this journey! Now that is an adventure!

Toledo Steam Carriage showing it power in climbing a slope 1902 on its way back home 871 miles across Eastern America.

The journey was no doubt made even longer by setting up a tripod and composing and taking photos along the way!

A very kind thank you to Nick Powell for providing the images from his restoration order. You can read more about these machines on toledosattic.org

From time to time i get some interesting photos to restore. Wednesday I took a delivery of some old photographic glass plates. They came in these lovely boxes. Two sizes of plates 5×4 inches and 7×5 inches. Both Kodak and Ilford plates, the Kodak selling point was “Anti-Halo” and the Ilford “Auto-Filter”. From research it seems they were circa 1923. The subject matter of the plates were hunting trophies. Leopard, Tigers, bears and Boar. (sorry permission not yet granted for display)

Old Kodak and Ilford Glass Photographic Plate Boxes 5×4 and 7×5 inch

What was very interesting to me is that the larger box came with the instructions for development.

Recipe for developing glass plates for Ilford Auto-Filter Anti-Halo 400

The recipes make interesting reading, I like the mention of the warning on the smaller box…

” Before returning unused film to this war-time package, care should be taken to ensure the film is wrapped in light proof paper. “

They were confident that unused film would be returned safely and unexposed even in war time!

Some old and varying sized negatives came along with the package for photo restoration in this envelope. The negatives, still hunting photos may have been intended for “The Explosives Department” at “Imperial Chemical Industries” in Calcutta as the envelope that came with it, was ready printed with the address. ICI eventually became defunct in 2008 after many years producing chemicals, explosives and paints before it was taken over by Akzo Nobel. Perhaps one of the employees was a hunter and simple kept his negatives safe in the envelope.

Old envelope ready printed for posting back negatives

Certainly an intriguing story developing…