BRUNSWICK, Maine — A rare photograph of President Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration was unveiled Thursday at Bowdoin College.
The photograph was taken in 1861, just six weeks before the start of the Civil War.
The Bowdoin College Museum of Art acquired the photo at auction in October.
It was the first inauguration captured by photographers.
The photograph was taken by Scottish American photographer Alexander Gardner, and is one of only three copies known. The other copies are in the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian.
The photo shows a large crowd gathered around the capitol to see Lincoln being sworn in.
“Back in 1861, when this photograph was taken, it would have been a large camera on a tripod. And in this instance, Gardner actually built a wooden platform, which he stood on, in order to capture from an elevated perspective, the extraordinary crowd that had gathered to hear the President’s address,” said Frank Goodyear, co-director of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.