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Smithsonian Photography Initiative

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Photography changes what we are willing to believe


Early in his career, Southern politician John Calhoun was a strong supporter of slavery. So it is ironic that an iconic portrait of Abraham Lincoln (circa 1860) is a photographic composite of Calhoun's body and Lincoln's head, purportedly created because no sufficiently heroic-style portrait of Lincoln had yet been taken. Perhaps what is most remarkable...

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