National Portrait Gallery historian David C. Ward discusses images of Abraham Lincoln that document his life in the White House (Anika Gupta, Beth Py-Lieberman, Jesse Rhodes and Ryan Reed).

The “skull” of a life mask appears hairless because the subject’s hair would be slicked back with oil or grease to keep it from sticking to the wet plaster. But the hair would be added later ...

In addition to being president, Abraham Lincoln was the post-master of New Salem; he also offered services as a wood chopper, county deputy surveyor, and lawyer. Abraham Lincoln was born in a one-room ...

Smithsonian Digitization Program Office Few objects better convey the toll the Civil War took on Abraham Lincoln than the “life mask” cast by the sculptor Clark Mills in February 1865 ...