This photo/image was passed down to me from my grandmother who was born in the year 1900. It was actually used as the backing of a Jesus portrait that she had in her retirement home room and it wasn't found until she had passed many years back.
You can tell that it's been heavily damaged over the years. Ever since it was given to me, I have had it in this plastic frame type thing. I don't think I have ever seen this type of image depicting Lincoln's death bed so it has always seemed very unique to me.
Either way, I was curious if there was a way to evaluate the authenticity of the image. Is this just a simple replication with little to no value or is it something special?
Apologies if this isn't the place to ask. It's just something I have always had in the back of my mind ever since I found the /r/AskHistorians subreddit. Thank you for your time.
That appears to be a reproduction of an image made in 1868 by Alexander H. Ritchie. It was popularly distributed as an engraving, but this appears to be based on the painting Ritchie had made earlier. The original engraving can be seen here. As you can tell your grandmother's has been cropped in addition to the damage it has sustained. Many similar renderings of Lincoln's final hour were made and all are strikingly similar to each other.
Unless this is an original engraving or reproduction, then I doubt it is worth very much, especially in it's current shape. As a piece of family history it may be priceless to you.
Thanks for sharing this one, really so very interesting. Much appreciated.
