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Marshall portrait of Abraham Lincoln
- Creator:
- William Edgar Marshall
- Location:
- Unknown place made
- Origin Date:
- 1880-1920
- Materials:
- paper
- Measurements:
- overall: 25 1/4 in x 18 7/8 in
- Item ID:
- 71.2009.081.2352
- Holding Institution:
- Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, courtesy of the Indiana State Museum
- Available for Viewing:
- No
- Category:
- Fine Art
Description
This engraving featuring a head and shoulders portrait of President Abraham Lincoln was done from the original painting by William E. Marshall in 1865. The print shows Lincoln in a black coat and bow tie facing toward the viewer's right. The portrait is surrounded by the decorative floral ovular border which is encased in a decorative rectangular frame all of which are part of the engraving. The title plate is located just below the portrait. The print has lots of extraneous ink marks all over the image and the margins. A handwritten note in pencil in the lower margin says, "These are rust spots which I believe I can wipe off by polishing. W--" A handwritten note in pencil in the left margin near the top of the image has an arrow drawn to a damaged spot in the print and says, "Paper too soft, sticks to the plate." In the top margin a large ink spot is circled in pencil with a line connecting it to the word "Rust" written in pencil. Nearby are several smaller dots of ink with a line connecting them to another handwritten word, "Rust." This may have been the first print pulled from an engraving plate that hadn't been used for a long period of time. 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