1860 Abraham Lincoln Republican Nominee for President Harper’s Weekly

Date: 1960
Artist: Brady, Matthew (after)    
Size (in): 15.675” x 10.875”
Size (cm): 39.8 x 27.6 
Condition: B

This is an original antique issue of Harper’s Weekly Journal of Civilization for Saturday, May 26, 1860 with a large engraving and full front page entirely devoted to Abraham Lincoln securing the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States.  The front page features a large wood engraving portrait of Lincoln from Matthew Brady’s famous photograph taken just before Lincoln would make his famous Cooper Union address.   This image of Lincoln was widely used during Lincoln’s 1860 presidential campaign and appeared on campaign ribbons, souvenir CDVs and elsewhere.   The article on Lincoln reads like a campaign biography and covers the entirety of the first page and little more than half a column on the second page under the headline HON. ABRAM. LINCOLN, OF ILLINOIS. REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT.  A brief campaign biography of Hannibal Hamlin, Lincoln’s Vice Presidential nominee, follows on the second page. 

This issue of Harper’s Weekly was published shortly after Lincoln secured the Republican Party nomination at the Republican National Convention in Chicago the week prior.   This front page portrait of Lincoln was the first image of the future President that a large segment of the American population would see.  Lincoln would later reminisce that Matthew Brady and the Cooper Union speech put him in the White House.      

This original antique issue of Harper’s Weekly is fully complete with 16 pages measuring just under 16" x 11" and was removed from a bound volume.  There is some partial separation between the front page and the rest of the periodical along the spine and some toning from age and moderate handling wear.  Overall condition is very good.