The photograph for this carte-de-visite of President Lincoln was made by Alexander Gardner at his Washington studio. Clearly, the long protracted war had taken a physical toll on Lincoln. The president is holding his spectacles, and he seems understandably weary. Early authorities mistakenly connected the photograph to Lincolns last studio photo session, which reportedly took place on April 10, 1865; however, more recent research places the date of the photograph as Sunday, February 5, 1865.