(Joseph) J.. Fenden Operator
ID'd Quarter Plate Daguerreotype of Lovely Lady Wearing Nice Frock Coat & Brooch, Identified as Francis "Fannie" Weeks Carter who Married Charles Putnam Carter in 1851; This Daguerreotype is Etched on Plate's Verso "J. G. Fenden OP (operator)- at Bradys Sept 12th 1853". Produced by J. G. Fenden in Mathew Brady's New York Gallery. During the Civil War, Fenden became a lithographer for Brady's famous Civil War pictures. Image is Housed in a Worn Full Pressed Paper Case w/ Floral Motif, Repaired Spine & Working Clasps. Image has been given new glass and resealed with Filmoplast P90. There are minor abrasions along the edge of the mat, the worst being along the bottom. There are a few very small spots in the silvers surface along the edge of the matte, to the left of her ear. There a couple faint mold spiders; one above her head, the other in her hair on the right. What made news on Monday, September 12th 1853 Abraham Lincoln learns that McLean County is proposing to tax Illinois Central Railroad property. Company offers to retain him. Before accepting he writes to T. R. Webber, clerk of Champaign Circuit Court: "As this will be the same question I have had under consideration for you, . . . you have the prior right to my services; if you choose to secure me a fee something near such as I can get from the other side. The question . . . is the largest law question that can now be got up in the State; and therefore, in justice to myself, I can not afford, if I can help it, to miss a fee altogether."
Abraham Lincoln to Thompson R. Webber, 12 September 1853,
CW, 2:202.
