The Last Beardless Portrait, Springfield, August 13, 1860

This ambrotype, taken in Springfield in the middle of the campaign and usually credited to Preston Butler, is thought to be the last photograph of Lincoln without a beard. It was made for John Henry Brown, a Philadelphia painter of miniatures on ivory who had come to Springfield on commission to paint the candidate, which explains the plain, steady pose with arms folded. Brown wrote in his diary that there were so many hard lines in Lincoln's face that it became a mask to the inner man. Three months later the beard began to grow.