Furthermore, Tad was too ill between his return to Chicago from Europe in May 1871 and his death that July to have traveled to Iowa. There is no evidence that Tad ever visited Mount Pleasant. This photograph was previously believed to show Tad during his final illness in 1871, but that could not be the case. In this photograph, taken in Mount Pleasant circa 1868, William sits writing at a table while an unidentified boy watches. At age 15, William has a lean face, long nose, and square chin. This photograph from the Lincoln Family Album Collection appears to be from that same sitting. One carte-de-visite identified as William from that sitting is in the collection of the State Historical Society of Iowa and has been published by Paul Juhl in his The James Harlan and Robert Todd Lincoln Families’ Mount Pleasant Memories (2008). In late 1866 or 1867 William sat for photographer John Goldin in Washington, D.C. This is William Aaron Harlan.Īn undated photograph of Tad shows his rounded face and chin, facial characteristics that continued into his teenage years…Īs shown in this photograph of 15-year-old Tad, dated July 15, 1868. Although the boy in the photograph is about Tad’s age, his lean cheeks, defined chin, and high hairline are clearly not Tad’s. Iowa Senator James Harlan was a Lincoln supporter and the president’s friend. This photograph was taken in May 1866 in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, the Harlan family’s hometown. Tad sat for this photograph after he and Mary Todd Lincoln settled in Chicago in 1865. Putting them side-by-side in chronological order makes it clear that these are photographs of two different individuals. Here are the photographs of the “real” and “mistaken” Tad from the Lincoln Family Album Collection. He is Tad’s friend and Mary Harlan Lincoln’s brother-William Harlan. The young man in these photographs and the boy previously identified as Tad Lincoln in three other Lincoln Family Album photographs is not Tad at all. How can we explain these two apparently posthumous cartes-de-visite? As a result of our research and helpful input from Joy Conwell at Iowa Wesleyan College and Iowa historian Paul Juhl, the explanation is clear. Another carte in the collection with the same image, minus the moustache, is dated 1876, five years after Tad’s death. That seemed a reasonable idea-at least until examination of the back of the carte revealed it had been printed in 1872, the year following Tad’s death. It appeared that Tad had penciled in a moustache on this photograph, as he had done as a young boy on a photograph of himself dressed as a soldier. Lincoln shortly before his death in 1871. It started with a moustache. This carte-de-visite, part of the Lincoln Family Album Collection heldīy the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, was believed to be 18-year-old Tad

Tad lincoln