By far the most important of the illustrations of the work is the collection of portraits. This is the first systematic effort to make a complete collection of portraits of the great President. Our success so far encourages us in believing that before we end our work on Lincoln we shall have such a collection. Already we have some seventy-five different portraits. Of these, the great majority are photographs, ambrotypes, and daguerreotypes. It was Mr. Lincoln’s custom, after the introduction of photography into Illinois, to sit for his picture whenever he visited a town to make a speech. This picture he usually gave to his host; the result was that there now remain, scattered among his old friends, a large number of interesting portraits, of which nobody but the owners knew until we undertook this work. Thus of the twenty portraits which appear in this volume, twelve have never before been published anywhere, so far as we know. It has been through the generosity and courtesy of collectors and of our correspondents and readers that it has been possible for us to gather so great a number of portraits and documents. On all sides collections have been put freely at our service, and numbers of our readers have sent us unpublished ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, and photographs, glad, as they have written us, to aid in completing a Lincoln portrait gallery. It is not possible to mention here the names of all those to whom we are indebted, not only for portraits but for documents and manuscripts, but credit is given in inserting the material furnished. Our effort has been to give in both text and notes as exact and full statements as the information we have been able to gather permitted us to do. If any reader of this volume discovers errors we shall be glad to receive corrections. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE Origin of the Lincoln Family.—Possessions of Lincoln’s Grandfather.—Lincoln’s Story-telling Uncle.—Account of Lincoln’s Father, Thomas Lincoln.—Marriage of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy 21 Hanks.—Character of Nancy Hanks.—Thomas Lincoln’s Manner of Life and Standing among his Neighbors CHAPTER II. The Birth of Abraham Lincoln.—Lincoln’s Childhood Home.—Reminiscences of Austin Gollaher, a Boyhood Comrade of 42 Lincoln’s.—Saves Lincoln’s Life.—Lincoln’s Early School-teachers.—Lincoln’s Fondness for Study CHAPTER III. The Lincolns leave Kentucky.—Hewing a Way through the Forests of Indiana.—A Cabin erected near Gentryville, Spencer County, Indiana.—Description of Lincoln’s New Home.—Domestic Economy of 51 the Lincoln Household.—Pioneer Fare and Apparel.—Death of Lincoln’s Mother.—Lincoln’s Strength and Skill as a Laborer.—Lincoln earns a Dollar as a Ferryman CHAPTER IV.