On February 27, 1860, a relatively unknown "country lawyer" named Abraham Lincoln walked into Mathew Brady’s Broadway studio in NYC and sat for this portrait.
Hours later, he delivered the Cooper Union Address, arguably the most important speech of his career.
Photo restoration and colorization by me.
by coonstaantiin
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This photo became Lincoln’s primary campaign image. He later joked that “Brady and the Cooper Institute made me president”.
Brady knew Lincoln’s appearance was under fire. To make him look like a statesman, he tightened Lincoln’s collar to hide his long neck and retouched the negative to smooth facial lines and straighten a “roving” left eye.
Lincoln was symbolically posed with a pillar (strength) and books (knowledge).
The image was printed on thousands of “cartes de visite” (calling cards) and campaign buttons, allowing the public to finally see their candidate.
Lincoln delivered a masterful legal and historical defense against the expansion of slavery, arguing that the Founding Fathers intended for the federal government to have the power to restrict it.
He concluded with: “Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it”.
The speech was a sensation, proving Lincoln could out-debate the educated elite and transform him from a regional personality into a viable national contender.
Just 82 days later, Lincoln secured the Republican nomination.
Restored and colorized by me.
Original photo [here](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Abraham_Lincoln_1860.jpg)