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350

Robert Todd Lincoln

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:400.00 - 600.00 USD
Robert Todd Lincoln

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Auction Date:2011 Apr 13 @ 19:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
TLS signed “Robert Lincoln,” one page, 7.75 x 9.75, Pullman Building Chicago letterhead, October 25, 1910. Lincoln writes Frederick Hill Meserve, who, with Carl Sandburg, wrote The Photographs of Abraham Lincoln. In full: “I receive here your letter of the 14th instant, enclosing a little portrait of my father enlarged from a tin-type of a campaign buttom [sic] of 1860. As you say, it certainly seems to have been made from an enlarged photograph, but I cannot remember that I ever saw it before, or anything like it. It possesses a peculiarity about the mouth which i do not remember to have seen before in any photograph whatever. I can tell you nothing whatever about it. Mr. Sweet, my assistant, is very familiar with my father’s photographs and manuscript, and in sending your letter to me he cuts out from a sheet of medallion photographs, made by Hesler for campaign purposes, a couple of them which it may interest you to compare with the one you send. You will note, as Mr. Sweet does, that even in the two little photographs by Hesler there is a pronounced difference; the hands are in different positions, and the hair is not quite the same. Probably you have these things, but there is no harm in this addition to your collection.” In very good condition, with intersecting folds with a vertical fold touching the first letter of “Lincoln,” a spot of soiling at the lower right side, faint edge toning, and a paperclip impression at the top left corner. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope.

Lincoln was president of the Pullman Company and Charles Sweet was his secretary in Chicago when this letter was replied to in 1907. Hesler, referenced here, was Springfield, Illinois photographer Alexander Hessler, who took several photographs of a beardless Lincoln in June 1860. The photos were used in the campaign for president—with one of his portraits used extensively in the 1860 presidential campaign on medals and ribbons—but were in little demand once Lincoln was elected and grew a beard. “I cannot remember that I ever saw it before, or anything like it. It possesses a peculiarity about the mouth which I do not remember to have seen before in any photograph whatever,” Lincoln’s son explains here, referencing an image in question. The 16th president was said to have enjoyed his photo session with Hesler, noting of one image, ‘That looks better and expresses me better than any I have ever seen; if it pleases the people I am satisfied.’ It was examples of those known images that the president’s offspring said he would enclose with this letter, “a couple of them which it may interest you to compare with the one you send” with the good wish that “there is no harm in this addition to your collection.” A great look at the continued interest in Lincoln’s life decades after his assassination, and the willingness of his son to oblige admirers of the president.
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