Lincoln images rediscovered

A little piece of history was rediscovered at the Library of Congress. Some previously mislabeled glass negatives were correctly identified as being from Lincoln's inaguration to his second term on March 4, 1865 by Carol Johnson, Library of Congress curator of photography. You can see a good size crowd gathered outside the Capitol building for the event.

"These negatives add to our knowledge of this special event," said Johnson. "They show what that wet Saturday looked like with the massing of the crowd. They also convey the excitement of the people."

Johnson was prompted to examine the negatives after a Library of Congress patron alerted her to the fact that these visually similar photos had radically different identifications in the Library's online Civil War photographic negative collection. But instead of choosing between Grant and the Grand Armies Review, she opened a new door to the past by looking closely at the images and recognizing Lincoln's second inauguration.