Description

This unevenly trimmed engraving features a head and shoulders portrait of President Abraham Lincoln done from an original painting by William E. Marshall in 1865. Lincoln is shown wearing a dark coat and bow tie and facing toward the viewer's right. The portrait is surrounded by an oakleaf and floral oval border. For more information about this print, see "Lincoln Lore" number 591, August 5, 1940. Also see "The Lincoln Image" by Holzer, Boritt, and Neely, pages 211-214. The original Marshall engraving plate, also in the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, used to make the prints is ID number 71.2009.082.0420. Part of the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, courtesy of the Indiana State Museum William Edgar Marshall (1837-1906) was born in New York. He began his career as an engraver by engraving decorative pocketwatch covers while still a teenager. Marshall studied in France during the Civil War and returned to the U. S. in 1865 after which he began his painting of Abraham Lincoln. The subsequent print adaptation of the painting published by Ticknor & Fields was very favorably regarded by critics as well as those who had known Lincoln.