[Carte de visite portrait photograph of Abraham Lincoln.]

A HAWAIIAN LINCOLN

Albumen photograph measuring 90 by 60mm, laid down on photographer's card. Two small holes along the left side, likely from contemporary pinning to a letter. Honolulu, c.

This lovely portrait of Lincoln, available for customers in Hawaii, was made after Matthew Brady (Meserve 87) but here retouched and on a Hawaiian photographer's mount.

 

Chase opened his photo studio in Honolulu in 1862, advertising his purchase of the former gallery of Joseph W. King.  After a brief stay in San Francisco the following year, he returned to Hawaii "prepared to take pictures 'in every style such as ambrotypes, photographs, Melainotypes for lockets and landscapes, views of dwellings, &c.' A story in the Honolulu Friend of March 1, 1865 reported that Chase 'is now taking photographic views of the volcano and other island scenery, which are very good representations.' Following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Chase busied himself copying a photograph of the martyred president and selling prints" (Palmquist).  

 

It indicates the popularity of Lincoln not just across the United States but even the Pacific. At this time Hawaii was under the reign of Kamehameha V, who ruled from 1863-1872. Hawaiians enhtusiastically greeted news of the Emancipation Proclamation and Lincoln's death was front page news.

 

Palmquist, Peter, Pioneer Photographers of the Far West: A Biographical Dictionary, 1840-1865 (Stanford University Press, 2000), p.173.

Stock Code: 251764