Outdoor landscape CDV of President Abraham Lincoln’s home in Springfield, Illinois, heavily draped in mourning textiles with an assembled delegation standing at the perimeter fence, May 1865. Presented on a horizontal-format mount with a fine double-ruled border. The verso displays an elegant backmark for S.M. Fassett’s New Gallery, 114 & 116 South Clark St., Chicago. A period pencil notation reads  "Lincolns / Home / in Springfield."

A somber and highly important photograph documenting the profound grief displayed during the final stop of Abraham Lincoln's long funeral journey. The horizontal view captures Lincoln's iconic two-story Greek Revival home on the corner of Eighth and Jackson Streets. Every window is meticulously dressed with white and black mourning swags, and a long, formal fabric festoon underscores the entire upper roofline. Standing outside the white picket fence is a large, solemn delegation of men clad in dark frock coats, with several individuals wearing prominent white or light-colored sashes across their shoulders.

This precise view was captured originally by the prominent Springfield photographic partnership of Frank W. Ingmire and Thomas S. Pinschower immediately following the assassination. Recognizing an insatiable, nationwide public market for images associated with the martyred president, premier metropolitan galleries like Fassett's quickly purchased copies, negatives, or printing rights from local Springfield artists to reproduce them under their own backmarks. This cross-gallery distribution was a common phenomenon in May 1865, allowing regional photographs to be rapidly distributed to thousands of mourning citizens across the Midwest. Genuine 1865 prints of the Springfield home in mourning are highly desired by early photography collectors. 

Very good. The albumen print retains a wam tone with strong contrast and excellent clarity. The mount remains clean and untrimmed, showing only faint, honest age-toning and very minimal edge dusting near the corners.