Today, of course, is Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday.
This portrait, by George P. A. Healy, was one of the fifteen painted of the sixteenth President by the most popular portraitist of the day. It was painted in 1887, twenty-two years after Lincoln’s death, but it was based on an earlier painting of Lincoln called “The Peace Makers,” which was probably based on sketches made at the White House in 1964. It is now in the National Portrait Gallery.
During each year of his administration, the President and Mrs. Nixon sent large Christmas cards, made for them by Hallmark, to White House staff members. In 1971, the President’s card was this Healy portrait, with the legend: “With our best wishes / The President and Mrs. Nixon / at Christmas / 1971”
