Visit Photo Antiquities on the North Side to See “The Abraham Lincoln Photographic Exhibition”

• Open: Mondays, Wednesdays through Saturdays.
• Hours: 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
• Ground floor access ADA compliant
• For information: 412-231-7881; bruce817@yahoo.com

PHLF docents and staff toured the Photo Antiquities Museum of Photographic History at 531 East Ohio Street on Pittsburgh’s North Side on April 3. They were fascinated to see how the museum, that began 21 years ago with one display case, has grown to fill five rooms in two historic buildings.

The Lincoln exhibit, opening on May 1, is the largest display of vintage original photographs ever shown under one roof. The exhibit will be on display for one year and will have historical Lincoln photos and artifacts rotating in and out.

Visitors to the exhibit will see:

• The last check Abraham Lincoln wrote before attending Ford’s Theater
• A large oil painting by A. F. King of Lincoln, based on a Mathew Brady photograph
• A quarter-plate Daguerreotype copy of Alexander Hesler’s 1860 portrait
• Vintage photographs by N. H. Shepherd, W. J. Thompson, M. B. Brady, A. Hesler, C. S. German, A. Gardner, and H. F. Warren
• Documents and a portrait by Mathew B. Brady, signed by Lincoln
• A bronze bust of Lincoln in 1860, by Volk, mounted onto a pedestal base
• A plaster Life Mask by Clark Mills
• A copy of a Philadelphia Derringer
• A replica of the Ford’s Theater chair
• An original copy of the Dedication Gettysburg National Cemetery book, c.1864, which contains the first printing of the Gettysburg Address
• Various period prints of Lincoln
• A wax life-like portrait head of Lincoln, by Ivo Zini, c.1980