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Did This Photo Make Lincoln President?

Images can tell powerful stories. One iconic photograph can symbolize an entire era. But if we expand the frame and examine the moment in which it was taken, a very different story can emerge. In this series of documentary shorts, Harvard University historian Dr. Vincent Brown meets with curators, photographers and other experts to challenge common assumptions about iconic American images.

Did This Photo Make Lincoln President?

Season 1 Episode 1 | 11m 22s | CC

Can the spectacle of modern politics today be traced back to a photograph of Abraham Lincoln taken during the presidential election in 1860? Host Vincent Brown reveals the specific choices made by Lincoln and renowned portrait photographer Mathew Brady in hopes of casting the candidate as presidential in his iconic 1860 portrait.

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Major funding for THE BIGGER PICTURE was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additional funding was provided by the Anderson Family Charitable Fund, the Tamara L. Harris Foundation, the William Talbott Hillman Foundation, the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding for the digital production of THE BIGGER PICTURE was provided by Chasing the Dream – a public media initiative from The WNET Group, reporting on poverty, opportunity, and justice in America, and supported by The JPB Foundation, The Peter G. Peterson and Joan Ganz Cooney Fund, and Sue and Edgar Wachenheim, III.