Mary Lincoln's Favorite, by Samuel M. Fassett, Chicago, 1859

Samuel M. Fassett took this portrait at the Cooke & Fassett gallery in Chicago on October 4, 1859, a year after the Lincoln-Douglas debates had made Lincoln a national name. Of all the photographs made before he became president, Mary Lincoln is said to have considered this the best likeness of her husband. Compared with the Hesler portrait two years earlier, the hair is tamed and the gaze is steady, a hint of the more deliberate public image that the 1860 campaign would demand. Like several Chicago negatives, this one burned in 1871.