5 really old photos of Abraham Lincoln that you may never have seen before

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1. Cooper Union Abe

Abraham Lincoln seen on the morning of February, 27, 1860, prior to delivering his famous Cooper Union Address in Brooklyn, NY. Shot by Mathew B. Brady on the morning of the speech. Lincoln later said Brady’s portrait and the speech he delivered that day put him in the White House.

2. Long Abraham

Abraham Lincoln seen in May 1860 when he was running for the Republican nomination for President of the United States of America. This image, known as “Long Abraham,” is one of the only full-length photos of America’s 16th president, who stood 6-feet, 4-inches — good for tallest president in U.S. history.

3. Lincoln on the battlefield at Antietam

Abraham Lincoln at the Battle of Antietam in Maryland on October 3, 1862. In this photo, Lincoln is flanked by Allan Pinkerton, head of the U.S. Secret Service at the time, to his left, and General John A. McClernand to his right. According to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln journeyed to the battlefield in Maryland “to pay his respects to the wounded on both sides and to confer with his field generals.”

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4. Lincoln with shorter hair

Abraham Lincoln seen here in early 1865. Lincoln, noticeably, has shorter hair in the photo because, it’s believed, he was set to have his life mask — a detailed, three-dimensional cast of a living person that was often made of plaster — made, and Lincoln had trouble in the past with longer hair sticking in the plaster used to create such a mask. The photo was shot by Lewis Emory Walker, a government photographer.

5. Last ‘cracked-plate’ Lincoln

   This is the last known picture of Abraham Lincoln taken alive. The head-and-shoulders portrait, often referred to as "last photograph of Lincoln from life," was shot at Gardner's Gallery in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, February 5, 1865, by Alexander Gardner — a little more than two months before Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. It was the last photo taken in that day’s session, the last Lincoln ever sat for.

   The Smithsonian Institution describes it as “one of the most haunting portraits of any president,” depicting an “exhausted” Abe Lincoln at the end of the Civil War who was able to muster an “enigmatic smile.” Notice the crack running across the top of the image. The glass plate — the medium photographers used before the invention of film — “cracked when Gardner applied the emulsion to it that would create the image,” according to The Smithsonian Institution. Because of the crack, Gardner threw away the glass plate after making only one portrait. That lone portrait still exists and is housed at The National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. For more on what caused the crack, watch the video below.