The Lincoln Family Photograph: Moses in the Bulrushes

By Jay Peter Morgan

Few days in history have been as meticulously documented as Abraham Lincoln’s last day. The bucket list was short. The day began as a peaceful spring day and Lincoln had put in motion a plan to have a joyous carriage ride with his wife, attend the theater, and spend the day enjoying his family. Gone was the melancholy that had engulfed the last few years. On this day, the President bounced out of bed, was jovial at breakfast, and uncharacteristically fussed over his appearance. He was usually unkempt and miserable, but had a special reason to appear dapper on this day. On their carriage ride there is about an hour where the Lincolns are unaccounted for. Mary Lincoln claims they went toward The Soldier’s Home—historians disagree with her, but do not offer much of an alternative. Many historical accounts of Lincoln’s last carriage ride contradict the very eyewitness accounts they source. Everyone knows the events of that night, and hopefully my photograph fills in the afternoon of Lincoln’s last day.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jan 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781532090578

Jay Peter Morgan

Jay P. Morgan. in 1993, as an amateur antique collector and dealer, he acquired a pair of photographs that set in motion a new set of career paths; amateur historian and author. Currently residing in Ames, Iowa, Jay enjoys the simple pleasures in life. Writing with an ink pen, working with his hands, and having lengthy conversations about Lincoln are a few of Jay’s hobbies. Moses in the bulrushes is his first publication, and hopefully not his last. Jay writes from his heart, bringing a certain charm that can only be acquired from a lifetime in the Midwest.

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THE LINCOLN FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH

Moses In The Bulrushes

Copyright © 2020 Jay Peter Morgan.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-5320-9058-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-9484-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-9057-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019921211

www.bulrushesmedia.com

iUniverse rev. date: 02/19/2020

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The front cover photo is a reverse overlay of Abe Lincoln (Feb. 5, 1865) by Alexander Gardner; mixed with Morgan’s Abe Lincoln (April 14, 1865.) Thanks to the work of Engineering Animation Inc Ames, Iowa, 1998, by Robert Coshland / Martin Vanderpol.

Dedicated to the late great Lincoln author, artist,

and collector, Lloyd Ostendorf, who was instrumental in helping me begin this project. I visited Lloyd Ostendorf at his mansion in Dayton, Ohio, on October 24, 1994. My brother Jeff went with me to witness this event. Lloyd welcomed us at the front door and took us into his parlor and we shared our photographs. He bragged his up and mine down due to lack of proof. By the end of the visit I was presented with the cracked Lincoln photograph (by Alexander Gardner. Feb. 05,1865.) This was the million dollar one of a kind print. His wife came in to check in on us a couple times. The last thing Lloyd said to me in this life was, find the chair and I’ll give you credit (The chair was discovered 15 years later, unfortunately, Lloyd was deceased.)

A forensic study video was conducted by William F. Riley, Phd. This video was created at Rave Studio, Ames, Iowa. The labeling of the stills marked M&M referred to a Morgan partnership. This video shows a slow bleed of author’s tribe of Abe, and the four Lincolns. These are mixed with known images of the same four Lincolns. 1996. See website for Rave Studio Video. www.bulrushesmedia.com

This book was produced in cooperation with Bulrushes Media LLC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

(1) THE MODERN DISCOVERY OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS

(2) CIVIL WAR, THE LINCOLNS AND THE HARLANS

(3) POST-CIVIL WAR, THE LINCOLN/ HARLAN FAMILY

(4) ALEXANDER GARDNER’S PHOTOGRAPHIC PRACTICE

(5) GARDNER’S IMPRINT ON THE LINCOLN FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH

(6) CARL SANDBURG AND GARDNER’S CAMERA REGISTER

(7) IDENTIFYING THE SUBJECTS IN THE LINCOLN FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH

(8) UNRAVELLING GARDNER’S APPLIED ARTWORK AND ALTERATIONS TO THE LINCOLN FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH

(9) EVENTS LEADING UP TO LINCOLN’S LAST DAY

(10) THE LINCOLNS’ LAST DAY TOGETHER

(11) GARDNER’S ALTERATIONS: THE LINCOLN-MOSES PARALLEL

(12) HOW DID GARDNER ALTER THE LINCOLN FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH?

(13) FROM THE LINCOLNS UNTIL NOW

CLOSING COMMENTS

APPENDIX A:

PRE-CIVIL WAR, ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND JAMES HARLAN

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

QUOTE REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION

M Y INTENTIONS FOR WRITING THIS book are to introduce to the public two mysterious photographs that I discovered years ago in central Iowa. They could represent a new image of Abraham Lincoln and his household in more ways than one.

So far, I have found that your average historian will quickly assess my two photographs and rule them coincidental Victorian family photographs containing one individual resembling Abe Lincoln- but his hair and forehead are seemingly wrong. Likely, next a comment would follow that this is a common phenomenon, and I’m not the first to be fooled by a look-alike.

If that assessment doesn’t end my claims abruptly, the historian may suggest they could even represent a clever prank, created by a past forger, but most certainly that it is not a new and undiscovered photograph of Abraham Lincoln! Every photograph ever taken of him has been recorded in many books.

Early on, I wasn’t very good at defending my suspicions. I had trouble getting others to look past the unusual hair pattern of my Lincoln suspect and to study the faces and bodies of all members of that group compared to the known Lincoln household. After several historians got a good laugh, I was considering giving in, and agreeing to have my eyes tested as suggested. I nevertheless researched the Lincoln family and household thoroughly, and little by little my suspicions were eventually affirmed.

01794649.jpg

The Lincoln Tribe April 14, 1865 approx. 4:15 PM. at Alexander Gardner’s studio, 6 hours before Abe was shot.

(Property 0f Jay P. Morgan. Author.)

Here is what I have now concluded; my first photograph contains six individuals I will later establish to be the Abraham Lincoln tribe in April, 1865. (Abraham, Mary, sons Robert and Tad, posed with two women, Mary Eunice Harlan and Elizabeth Keckley) Mary Harlan would marry Robert Lincoln in the future and Elizabeth Keckley was Mary Lincoln’s dressmaker, confidant and servant.

The second mysterious photograph was more of a challenge. In fact, if the individual that sold the pair of photographs to me had not insisted that the two photographs were somehow related, I would have never guessed there was a connection. Gradually, I realized that this second group of six subjects was positioned in the same manner as the first group, wearing similar attire and re-utilizing at least one piece of furniture a large upholstered hand-carved armchair. It was raw luck that allowed me to identify some of this group as being connected to Lincoln’s descendants and extended family circa 1891. Iowa Senator and Robert Lincoln’s father-in-law, James Harlan, now occupied the armchair previously used by Abraham Lincoln. Other members of this group photograph will be discussed later. It didn’t take me long to realize my two photographs together tell a story that few would believe without a mountain of proof.

02794649.jpg

James Harlan Tribe A Holiday gathering; and wedding announcement, circa 1889-90. Photo

was likely taken by Leinsinger bros. photography Mount Pleasant, Iowa.

(Property of Jay P. Morgan author.)

This complete story couldn’t be told if the pair had ever been separated from each other. Despite the general consensus that my Lincoln group photograph was not authentic and not of Mr. Lincoln, I couldn’t admit defeat and stop searching. During the last 25 years, I have traveled all over the country, consulting historians, museum curators, forensic investigators, and photography experts. I have spent 10s of thousands of dollars on my quest, and have lost some dear friends along the way, as progress dragged. The steps and missteps in my investigation are described in these pages. I am now ready to present my conclusions to the public, although many will reject them from the start as outrageous. As clues fell into my hands over the years, I have concluded that:

The main photograph shows Lincoln seated, across from his seated wife Mary Todd, with their sons Thomas (Tad), seated, and Robert Todd Lincoln standing behind Tad. Above Lincoln stands Elizabeth Keckley, a mulatto former slave who was Mary Lincoln’s dressmaker, confidant and servant. Standing next to Robert and above seated Mary is Robert Lincoln’s fiancé’, Mary Eunice Harlan. This is the only surviving photograph of Lincoln with his entire family. The purpose of the photo was to announce the engagement of Robert Todd Lincoln to Mary Harlan. (After Lincoln’s assassination, the wedding was postponed for three years so Robert could study law.)

The Lincoln tribe photograph is an Imperial and was taken by Lincoln’s favorite photographer, Alexander Gardner, on the very day that Lincoln was shot, Good Friday, April 14th, 1865. For over one hundred and thirty years it was acknowledged by historians that Gardner had photographed Lincoln during that holy week. That photo was realized as non-existent in the 1980s.

This group photograph became Mary Lincoln’s most cherished possession, and was referred to as Moses in the bulrushes. It was kept secret by the Lincoln descendants, eventually traveling to Iowa, to the home of James Harlan, Lincoln’s close ally and friend and the father-in-law of Robert Lincoln. After all the family descendants had died, the photographs turned up in Boone, Iowa, tied with twine, at a garage sale.

The very odd armchair that appears in both photographs ties the two reciprocating photos together beyond any doubt. It is the same chair with the same antimacassar over its back. Research strongly suggests that this chair was from the Lincoln’s White House collection, and is currently in bad condition at James Harlan’s museum home in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Mary must have gifted it to him.

Early on and for years to follow, I was misled and incorrect on the identity of the James Harlan group. I thought James Harlan looked a lot like an Abolitionist named Asa B. Hutchinson who was part of a family that was close to the Lincolns, This theory began with a photograph I found in a Lincoln biography by the Kunhardt’s that seemed to match some of my individuals in the photograph that accompanied the Lincoln’s group picture.

It was only recently that I realized I could not substantiate that theory. Lincoln historians didn’t argue that improper identification, they were only concerned with the Lincolns. Research with McLeod County Historical Museum in Hutchinson, Minnesota proved that I should start over deducing the identity of that second group.

My research team of Karl Salvage, Johnathan Moran and myself, realized we should start with the unusual armchair that is common in the two photographs and learn where that chair is at today, to see if something had been missed.

It didn’t take us long to focus on the Harlan-Lincoln family and Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, where the mysterious chair was discovered by us in 2013 and still resides at the Harlan- Lincoln House Museum on the Iowa Wesleyan College campus. While everyone in the Harlan tribe photograph is not yet identified, we feel that we now have enough information to release our theory on that particular photograph and why it was taken. It seems that the Robert Todd Lincoln family retained their only family photograph and kept it very private until Mary Lincoln died in 1882. Years later, when Lincoln’s first granddaughter was getting married, James Harlan re-staged the group portrait having the chair in his possession at that time. For decades James Harlan owned the home where the mysterious chair can still be found today. The two photos were paired up after 1890, and are still together today.

My book and its claims may be offensive to those history buffs who are confident that there is little left to be discovered about the Lincolns. In fact, anyone who is well versed in Lincoln lore will immediately point out that by all accounts, the Lincoln family was never photographed together. I wish I only claimed I had the only photograph of them as a group. (It gets more unbelievable.) Realistically, my research has led me to start with a seemingly improbable premise which developed into a very unusual story concerning our 16th President.

My research will also introduce many new theories and revelations concerning the last several days of Abe’s life details more revealing than anything previously printed on Lincoln’s last days.

I know I am easy prey for skeptics. I have no credentials to stand on, so I have used every resource available and have done well with the help of professionals who became interested in this project over the years. Many museums have been consulted and much research, profitable and not, has resulted. The Lincolns and their extended family are quite familiar to me by now. In writing as I have done, I am well aware that I have invited criticism; but before the critic judges harshly, let my explanation in these pages be carefully read and weighed. Please don’t just look at the pictures- read the book as well.

I have found some of my strength through the words of Albert Einstein, who once said, I have little patience with scientists who take a board of wood and drill a great many holes where drilling is easy. The thin spots are very obvious in my wood. The President’s hair is unusual. His mole isn’t easily visible and there is no stovepipe hat. History is certain that Lincoln was never photographed with his entire family. I ask the reader to bear with me and drill also where the wood is the thickest. The Harlan-Lincoln story with its roots in Iowa make this miracle-survival story very believable. The chair is a unique survivor to help authenticate the story.

In the following text, distinguished historical information is presented within its own footnoted paragraph. My interpretation of known historical information and my personal opinions are stated as such and are contained in separate paragraphs without footnotes. The quotations which appear in this book are recorded from written accounts, or they are based on the words of those individuals who witnessed the event firsthand. The most upstanding information was gathered and is here presented for the interested.

Sincerely,

Jay P.Morgan

1

THE MODERN DISCOVERY OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS

M Y JOURNEY BEGAN WITH A simple purchase of antiques between a friend and myself- both amateur antique collectors in central Iowa in the summer of 1993. I was the buyer this time. I was a young man with a family making a meager living in Garden City, Iowa. The seller was an elderly gentleman named Al Coy. He was retired and lived on a small farm near Gilbert, Iowa. We were both helping to support our families through the resale of antiques. I usually restored damaged antiques but occasionally bought items for my collection or resale.

03794649.jpg

This is a picture of Al Coy, circa 1945, Al was a Medic in W.W.II

(with permission from the Coy Family.)

This particular purchase from Al Coy began with an unbelievable story, as often occurs when amateurs dabble in antiques. This circumstance is quite common to those in the business. While I seriously doubted Al Coy’s story that day concerning the pair of photographs, I did not know Al to be dishonest. I felt he had embellished his story to up the sale price a bit.

Allison (Al) Bernard Coy had been a veteran of World War II, serving as a medic. Al and his wife raised four children in the heart of Iowa. He was also a musician, playing a standing bass in a local band, as well as a carpenter, farmer, and a good friend.

Al had sold me a lot of stuff over the years, but nothing of this caliber. We had met a few years prior when I had a small antique shop in Nevada, Iowa. During the spring of 1993 I had seen little of Al. I blamed this on the torrential rains that had kept us separated with flooded roads and bridges. The day Al showed up with his pair of large photographs he explained why it had been so long since he had been by. He had suffered a heart attack and had a pacemaker installed to buy him more time. Al mentioned that he had died on the operating table, but was brought back. He proudly claimed, he wasn’t afraid to die again!

The floods had turned Central Iowa inside out for two months and Al’s farm had suffered water damage. When Al pulled into my driveway that day, we were finally drying out and it hadn’t rained in several days. He had his red truck with his black labrador riding shotgun. I was glad to see him, but felt sorry for Al after hearing about his medical condition. We walked into my open garage where I was working on a piece of antique furniture. The flood had brought me a lot of water-soaked business.

Open heart surgery had taken a lot out of Al. I could tell his time on Earth was limited. He seemed confident that he still had a year or two left if he took good care of his heart. The pacemaker enabled him to travel again, which allowed him to bring two photographs, one of which was water damaged and in need of some help.

There were two reasons he brought these photographs to me, specifically. He wanted me to explore the mystery behind them. These photographs were indeed large and grand. (sixteen inches by twenty inches)They looked like two stylish Victorian families to me. There was nothing special about them except the quality and size of the photographs. But Al obviously had some medical bills to pay and the story he told seemed to reflect that notion.

The grander of the two photographs, he claimed, was a picture of the Abraham Lincoln Family. Al seemed absolutely positive of this, even though I wasn’t too sure. Al was less confident about the second group photograph, but he felt it might be a young Mary Lincoln with her Southern family. He must have done some research but could not confirm the second photograph. What he did know for sure was that the two photographs were somehow linked and should not be separated for any reason.

04794649.jpg

Al And Winona Coy 1965,

(with permission from the Coy Family.)

Al even stated that they may have come out of the White House since he had purchased them at a garage sale in the late 1980s in Boone, Iowa, a town just west of Ames, Coy’s hometown. Boone has a White House connection being the birthplace of Mamie Doud Eisenhower, wife of President Eisenhower. She had outlived her husband Ike by a decade and her uncle, Joel Carlson, who had died in 1978, one year before Mamie. Joel Carlson was a vice-president of the local Boone bank and had a large century-old home in Boone. Some of the family’s remaining possessions were predestined for the Mamie Eisenhower Birthplace Museum in Boone. It was prearranged for the museum to house the Doud (Mamie’s maiden name) and Carlson families’ remaining memorabilia.

Ike’s grandson, David Eisenhower wrote:

Another calming influence on Ike was Mamie’s uncle, Joel Carlson, who was a regular guest during their winter visits. Joel was born near Mamie’s birthplace in Boone, Iowa, in 1880. He went to work at an early age for the local bank, where he began as a teller. In middle age, Joel took an interest in literature and became a self-taught scholar on the subject of Abraham Lincoln.

That would possibly explain why Lincoln-related items could have ended up in Boone, Iowa, instead of becoming the inheritance of John, the son of Ike and Mamie. If Ike had any relics relating to Lincoln, they may have gone to Joel Carlson because of his interest in Lincoln.

05794649.jpg

Lincoln Tribe Photograph in original frame taken in 1994 (35mm camera)

(property of author)

That fateful day in 1993, when I was introduced to the photographs, Al Coy and I moved inside to my kitchen and looked closer at the elaborate photographs. I could tell the frames were not the originals and were not valuable to me. The Lincoln photograph was in an average 1870’s frame and the other in a common 1890s frame.

I was basically buying the photographs for their resale value to antique photograph collectors. Not backing down from his position in the face of skepticism, Al assured me that Abraham Lincoln was seated in one of the group photographs. He also promised me that they came from a Boone garage sale. Unfortunately, I had no idea what Abraham Lincoln’s family looked like. I wanted to believe Al, but my eyes did not trust the cataracts in his. He had sold me many wall hangings and I was not confident he could tell reproductions from originals. I knew Al always took his pictures out of the frames and often switched frames to match valuable pictures to valuable frames to make a profit. I did not have much money on me, and he wanted much more than I had. (200 dollars I believe.)

Al respected my opinion when it came to antique artwork, but this time I had to let him down gently. I could not see Lincoln as clearly as he could. At this time, I knew very little about these large Victorian portraits, but with the water damage, I did not feel they were worth much. The grander of the two, the Lincoln group, was wrinkled and partially stuck to the glass. The background had washed and faded but the subjects and furniture were sharp and clear. Al did not know why Lincoln’s forehead and chin looked wrong nor could we find his mole. I was also concerned with the two women standing in the photograph. Al did not know who they were, either. I truly felt my old pal was slipping and he needed help to handle his bills. In the past he had been a noble businessman, seemingly above