Mr. Lincoln

This is generally the month when I share with my fourth graders my collection of photos of Abraham Lincoln. My photos are all on old black and white transparencies. So this year, I made a slideshow with photos that I found online. I tried to duplicate many of my transparency photos, which I had copied from a giant book of photography by Matthew Brady. It is so interesting to look at his face, and to see the weathering over the years. We learned in class, that Mr. Lincoln grew a beard in response to a suggestion by a little girl named Grace Bedell. The top photo is her letter to Lincoln, and the bottom letter is Lincoln's response to Grace. It is stained by snowdrops, because she read it while walking home from the post office on a snowy day. I like that he took the time to write to a child, during his campaign. What politician of today would do such a thing? Enjoy the photos, either with whiskers or without…  You can watch the slideshow version: https://vimeo.com/119919742.