Thanks to wetplate collodion this (cropped) image of Abraham Lincoln still sharp and penetrating. Photographed by Alexander Gardner, and taken on February 21, 1885. The interesting detail to this image is, in the course of removing the plate from the camera, Alexander Gardner cracked it, so it was in two pieces, but still printable, you can see the crack in the albumen prints made from it still smiling at us after 123 years.
Happy 204th birthday Abe!
Abe cropped,
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Abraham Lincoln - Alexander Gardner, 1865/Albumen silver print/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution