The Peoria Riverfront Museum now possesses a rare original ambrotype photograph of Abraham Lincoln that was taken in Peoria.
Known as “the Peoria Portrait,” the 1854 image showing Lincoln without a beard was used four years later in his U.S. Senate campaign against Stephen A. Douglas before they both ran for president.
Experienced authenticator Daniel Weinberg of Chicago’s Abraham Lincoln Book Shop Inc. confirmed it’s the original photo taken by Roderick M. Cole at his Downtown Peoria studio.
“The turning point of Abraham Lincoln’s career took place a block and a half from where we are sitting in this museum right now,” said museum president and CEO John Morris, announcing the acquisition Tuesday on the 14th anniversary of the museum’s opening.
“The Peoria speech was a definitive moment in his philosophy that liberty was the supreme value of this country.”
The original Lincoln photo now joins the museum’s permanent collection and is on display as part of the “Promise of Liberty” exhibition, with Morris calling it “the most important photograph taken in Peoria, and the most important work of history to come into this collection since we opened this museum.”
Museum board chairman Derek Schryer said the quest to acquire it started several years ago. Weinberg found the original at a rare book fair in New York, prompting a search that located the private collector who owned it and negotiations to sell the item to the Peoria Riverfront Museum.
“The collections committee of our board led the acquisition, which was made possible by all the generous America 250 donors this past year, whose resources enabled this extraordinary homecoming,” said Schryer.
Ambrotype is a photographic process that creates the image on a glass plate. The Lincoln image taken in Peoria was later mass-produced as a small paper collectible that was put into widespread circulation among voters and supporters.
“Objects like these tell such powerful stories, and we hope that our children feel confident and build their confidence in learning these stories, to know that happened here,” said Everley Davis, the museum’s community engagement coordinator.
“We want them astonished by that, and to hopefully spark further learning. We never know what story is shared with them that will then unleash their full talent and genius.”
