Mystery Lab / Photographs & images
A new face, the same body and setting?
Replace only the face in an invented portrait. Then inspect the face and the body-and-setting pieces separately to trace their different origins.
Why change geometric faces for a story about Lincoln?
A historical portrait print combines Lincoln’s face with another politician’s body and setting. It gives us a reason to distinguish the finished figure from the images used for its parts.
Instead of actual portraits, we use square-faced and round-faced geometric characters. First replace the face. Next separate the result into the face and the remaining picture, and inspect their invented source labels.
① Compare the original and replaced-face portraits: do the body, table and setting stay fixed? ② Inspect both the face piece and the body-and-setting piece to see where each originated.
Continue with the story and its records
Explore how the difference you noticed connects with the surviving records of the historical story.
Read about Lincoln’s composite portraitOpen the source
Sources and scope
The Library of Congress record supplies the medium, estimated date and composite structure. The Lincoln Memorial Shrine’s exhibition provides context for comparing related images.
- 01Abraham Lincoln — composite mezzotint, item 2003654314 Library of Congress · Prints and Photographs Division · Checked 2026-10-22
- 0219th Century Photoshop The Lincoln Memorial Shrine · A. K. Smiley Public Library, Redlands · Checked 2026-10-22
The text is original and based on the cited records. No historical portrait, plate or photograph is reproduced. The characters and sources A and B are invented explanatory material, not reconstructions of the print’s production process or detailed composition.