after Franklin C. Courter (1854-1947), artist. President Lincoln Showing Sojourner Truth the Bible Presented Him by the Colored People of Baltimore. Executive Mansion, Washington, D.C., Oct. 29, 1864. Albumen cabinet card on cardstock mount. [Michigan]: [Frank Perry], circa 1890s. 

An extremely rare cabinet card after a painting by Franklin C. Courter, that depicts Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist Sojourner Truth together with a Bible gifted to him by the African American community in Baltimore.

The original painting was commissioned by Frances W. Titus (1816-1894), herself an abolitionist and suffragist, who is best remembered as Sojourner Truth's secretary, confidant, editor, and tour manager. After Truth's death in 1892, Titus collected donations and commissioned local art professor  Franklin C. Courter to capture the meeting of Lincoln and Truth. The completed work was exhibited at the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition. Thereafter, it was displayed in the lobby of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, but was tragically lost when the sanitarium was consumed by fire in 1902. Before its demise, the painting was photographed by local photographer Frank Perry. Another known copy, held at the Library of Congress, is attributed to photographer R.D. Bayley. 

Sojourner Truth met President Lincoln on 29 October 1864, and recounted the event in a letter dated 17 November 1864: "He then showed me the Bible presented to him by the colored people of Baltimore, of which you have no doubt seen a description. I have seen it for myself, and it is beautiful beyond description. After I had looked it over, I said to him, This is beautiful indeed; the colored people have given this to the head of the government, and that government once sanctioned laws that would not permit its people to learn enough to enable them to read this book. And for what? Let them answer who can. I must say, and I am proud to say, that I never was treated by any one with more kindness and cordiality than were shown to me by that great and good man...As I was taking my leave, he arose and took my hand, and said he would be pleased to have me call again. I felt that I was in the presence of a friend, and I now thank God from the bottom of my heart that I always have advocated his cause, and have done it openly and boldly."

A very rare photograph of a now lost painting commemorating the historic painting of Truth and Lincoln. 

References

Steve Coats. "Abraham Lincoln and Sojourner Truth." The New York Times, 29 October 2010. 

 [Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Cased Images, Union Cases, Albumen Photographs, CDVs, Carte de Visites, Cartes de Visite, Carte-de-visite, Cartes-de-visite, CDV, Cabinet Cards, Stereoviews, Stereocards, Stereographs] [Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Abraham Lincoln, Politics, Mary Todd Lincoln, 1860 Election, Election of 1860, 1864 Election, Election of 1864,  Lincoln Assassination, John Wilkes Booth]