Abraham Lincoln and His Son, Tad, 1864

This portrait shows President Abraham Lincoln and his youngest son, Tad. The original photograph was taken by Anthony Berger in the Mathew Brady studio in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 1864. The maker of this carte-de-visite is unknown. Because of its appealing subject of Abraham Lincoln as a father, it was a popular image to purchase and place in albums.

This sentimental photograph shows President Abraham Lincoln and his youngest son, Tad. Anthony Berger, working for Mathew Brady's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. took the original photograph on February 9, 1864. The image was retouched and printed after 1865 by Anthony Berger and other photographers, including the unidentified photographer who produced this example. In Berger's alteration, the chair had different details than the chair in the Brady studio.

A popular image of Lincoln and Tad, it was offered for sale in the form of photographs, lithographs and engravings because of its appealing subject of Abraham Lincoln as a father. In the mid-19th century, small photographs like this one, known as cartes-de-visite, were a popular size to gather into photograph albums similar to the one Lincoln holds in this image. Photographs of famous people like President Lincoln were often purchased and placed in albums along with those of one's family and friends.