This photograph, taken by Mathew Brady in 1860, shows a beardless Lincoln the year before he became president of the United States.

Washington — Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) is widely regarded as one of the greatest U.S. presidents and is perhaps the most admired and compelling figure in American history. Studied by generations of schoolchildren, Civil War enthusiasts and historians, Lincoln remains a brilliant enigma, as much of a riddle today as he was to his contemporaries.

Lincoln’s elusive nature — and the qualities that enabled him to steer his nation through its gravest crisis, the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) — are the central focus of a new exhibition, One Life: The Mask of Lincoln, at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery. The exhibition offers rare photographs and other objects, including two life masks (plaster casts of Lincoln’s face, which provide a three-dimensional view of the man, warts and all). The objects bring visitors tantalizingly close to a shadowy figure who seems always to hover just out of reach.

Because he lived in the 1800s, when photography was a fairly new technology, Lincoln enjoyed an advantage denied to earlier presidents: the opportunity to disseminate his image far and wide, and even to shape that image to a significant degree. David Ward, curator of the One Life exhibition, explained that Lincoln was quick to grasp the implications of photography and to embrace the new medium.

As Lincoln rose from obscurity to make a name for himself, first as a lawyer and later as a politician, he regularly visited photographers’ studios to sit for his portrait. Early photographic prints of Lincoln reveal that he “presented himself as a socially powerful, responsible figure” in sober business suits, said Ward. The image that Lincoln projected in these pictures undoubtedly helped establish him as a serious candidate for high office, and one of the photographs displayed in the One Life exhibition “is actually credited with making him president,” Ward added.

GETTING AHEAD IN 19TH-CENTURY AMERICA

One Life: The Mask of Lincoln makes it clear that Lincoln was able to overcome his impoverished background because of his intellect, his charisma and his fierce ambition. In fact, a journalist of the period “once dismissively said of Lincoln that ‘the little engine of his ambition knew no rest,’” Ward said. Yet even those who initially underestimated him soon came to realize that Lincoln was a man of extraordinary gifts.

To succeed in 19th-century America, “you had to be two things: physically very strong,” which was essential in a rugged environment, “and convivial in a way that resonated with men in a frontier society,” said Ward. Lincoln, who stood 1.83 meters, 10 centimeters (6 feet, 4 inches) tall, was physically imposing and strong. He regularly won axe-wielding contests of brute strength — a common form of entertainment during the mid-1800s, Ward observed. Moreover, Lincoln “was able to tell stories and jokes,” which was an important asset in the political arena. According to Ward, Lincoln’s sociability and self-deprecating sense of humor “were a critical part of his ability to get men to follow him.”

Although populist notions of Lincoln as “Honest Abe” were not entirely inaccurate, such characterizations were mostly the work of clever campaign managers, who functioned in much the same manner as today’s political operatives. Before long, the idea of Lincoln as a prairie version of Everyman gave way to a more statesmanlike presentation, and his many studio portraits of the 1860s reinforce the concept of Lincoln as a dignified chief executive.

As the Civil War escalated, Lincoln grew a beard — most likely because it made him seem more authoritative at a time “when an anxious country looked to him for leadership,” said Ward. “The beard symbolized that he was girding for battle; it’s literally a show of testosterone.” Photographs of Lincoln meeting with his generals and with soldiers on the battlefield sent a signal, as well. “These images demonstrate that he’s actively involved with the prosecution of the war as commander in chief,” Ward said. “And they demonstrate civilian control of the military. Lincoln is communicating that he’s in charge.”

TRANSFORMATION

In aligning himself with the cause of the Union — the northern forces that opposed slavery and the secession of the southern Confederate states — Lincoln “developed an unwavering sense of mission” about preserving the republic, said Ward. Moreover, he said, Lincoln was “an intensely spiritual man, yet he belonged to no church. He acted according to his view of God’s will, which freed him up to do as he saw fit.”

The pressures of war transformed Lincoln from an exceedingly nimble politician into one of history’s giants. By restoring his country’s founding commitment to the principle of freedom, Lincoln “redeemed the notion of America as a place of boundless possibility,” said Ward. “He was the indispensable man of his era.”

Among the greatest treasures in One Life: The Mask of Lincoln is an albumen silver print — now known as the “cracked-plate photograph” — which became the most iconic image of Lincoln ever produced. Taken by Alexander Gardner in 1865, the picture reveals a contemplative Lincoln, evidently exhausted and careworn. He gazes directly into the camera, his expression a mixture of elegiac sadness and deep empathy. A jagged line appears at the upper left-hand corner of the photograph and slashes through the top of Lincoln’s head.

That distinctive flaw — resulting from a crack in the glass-plate negative due to careless handling by the photographer or his assistant — makes the image especially memorable and haunting. Despite its accidental provenance, the crack serves as a powerful symbol of the divided nation that Lincoln was striving to unify. More ominously, it also foretells the trajectory of the assassin’s bullet that would kill Lincoln two months later.

“Lincoln was always conscious of his own mortality,” and the cracked-plate photograph conveys a certain fatalism, said Ward. “It’s almost a spectral image. Lincoln seems to be disappearing into history, slipping away from us as we try to approach him.” Also, he said, “there’s a faint smile” on Lincoln’s face — evocative of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece Mona Lisa — that enhances the air of mystery. The photograph’s preservation was a remarkable stroke of fortune, since it might easily have been discarded as “a throwaway picture” on account of the crack that marred its surface, Ward explained.

It is, arguably, the defining image of the exhibition, and the one that most fully captures the sphinx-like persona of the 16th president of the United States: a mythic figure who continues to fascinate and puzzle his compatriots, nearly 200 years after his birth.

One Life: The Mask of Lincoln opened on November 7, 2008, and runs through July 5, 2009. More information on the exhibit is available on the Web site of the National Portrait Gallery.