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The Town & the City: Lowell before and after The Civil War

Originally created to be a digital archive for Lowell documents from 1826 to 1861, this website has grown to cover many periods and events in Lowell's history.

Abraham Lincoln in Lowell - 1848

A 100th anniversary map of Abraham Lincoln's visit to Massachusetts, September 11-23, 1848.

Detail from A 100th anniversary map of Abraham Lincoln's visit to Massachusetts, September 11-23, 1848.

Abraham Lincoln, Congressman-elect from Illinois

[Springfield, Ill., 1846 or 1847]

Quarter plate daguerreotype ; plate 4 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.

This daguerreotype is the earliest-known photograph of Abraham Lincoln,

taken at age 37 when he was a frontier lawyer in Springfield and Congressman-elect from Illinois.

 

Lowell's City Hall on Merrimack Street in the late 1800s. 

Lowell Daily Journal and Courier, September 18, 1848

“Mr. Woodman introduced the Hon. Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois. It would be doing injustice to his speech to endeavor to give a sketch of it. It was replete with good sense, sound reasoning, and irresistible argument, and spoken with that perfect command of manner and matter which so eminently distinguishes the Western orators.”

The Centennial Anniversary of Abraham Lincoln. The Lowell Historical Society observed the One Hundredth Anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln by a public meeting in Memorial Hall, Wednesday evening, February 10, 1910,

Recollections of Lincoln in Lowell in 1848 by Hon. Samuel P. Hadley begins at the bottom of the first page below. From Contributions of the Lowell Historical Society, Vol. I. The Centennial Anniversary of Abraham Lincoln.