Description:

Lincoln Abraham

Abraham Lincoln's Cabin Displayed in an Important 1865 Albumen Print, Taken in the Year of his Assassination

 

Albumen print, 3.25' x 2.25" adhered to a backing of 4" x 2.5." Photo in near fine condition with handling marks to the backing paper.

 

The odd background of this photo is intriguing, and certainly imparts the adage that fact is stranger than fiction. The two people standing in front of Lincoln's log cabin are Dennis and John Hanks. Dennis was a boyhood friend and distant relative of Abraham Lincoln. He was born in Kentucky, son of Nancy Hanks an aunt of Abraham Lincoln's mother, also named Nancy Hanks. Dennis was adopted by Henry and Lucy Hanks Sparrow; Lucy was his mother's sister. In 1818 when the Sparrows and Nancy Lincoln died of "milk sickness," Dennis moved in with the Lincoln's, sharing a bed in the loft with Abraham. Three years later he married Sarah Johnston, daughter of Thomas Lincoln's second wife, Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln.

 

In 1830, the Lincoln family, with Dennis, moved to Macon County Illinois. This fantastic photograph depicts the Thomas Lincoln cabin in the Decatur district of Illinois, built in 1830. The photograph was taken in 1865, and standing next to the photograph are Dennis and John Hanks on the right, with beard.

 

During Lincoln's presidential years, Dennis Hanks and John Hall, the son of Lincoln's step sister, Matilda Johnston Hall, attended to the needs of Sarah Lincoln, Lincoln's step mother. Hanks did so begrudgingly. After the assassination of Lincoln in 1865, Dennis Hanks and others purchased the Lincoln cabin near Decatur where Abraham Lincoln had lived for a few months in 1830. The sole purpose was to display the cabin to the public, probably for profit. Hanks was noted for his lying and his inflated boasts of his relationship with Lincoln. He once claimed that it was he who first taught Lincoln to read and write.

 

A remarkable photo with an intriguing past, taken in the year of the assassination of President Lincoln.


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