BRUNSWICK, Maine — A Maine college is set to unveil a rare photograph of President Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration from 1861.
The Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick acquired the photo at auction in October and will unveil it Thursday.
It’s the first inauguration to be captured by photographers, and took place just six weeks before the start of the Civil War.
The image shows a crowd gathered around the Capitol to see Lincoln being sworn in. It’s believed to have been taken by Scottish-American photographer Alexander Gardner, and is one of only three known copies. The others are in the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution.
The Associated Press
