Alexander Hesler

The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is photography. Places of work recorded in the authority are Evanston and Chicago. Residence is recorded at Evanston. Work by Alexander Hesler is recorded in the collections of Art Institute of Chicago, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, National Gallery of Canada, J. Paul Getty Museum and Photography Collection.

• Name — Alexander Hesler • Born — July 12, 1823 • Birthplace — Montréal, Québec, Upper Canada • Died — July 5, 1895 • Place of death — Evanston, Illinois, U.S. • Resting Place — Mound Cemetery, Racine, Wisconsin, U.S. • Notable Works — Various photographs and portraits of Abraham Lincoln • Style — Tintype and daguerreotype • Movement — Early photography

Hesler was born in Montreal. He was active in the 1850s and early 1860s, and learned daguerreotype and ambrotype photography; however, in company with many of his fellow craftspeople, he was trained in glass plate photography in the 1850s and specialized in it thereafter. He operated studios in Galena, Chicago and Springfield, Illinois, and took images of people and scenes in Illinois. Using a portable darkroom, he also produced landscape scenes from nearby states and territories of what is now the American Midwest. Hesler's known portraits include photographs of the two chief Illinois political figures of his day, Lincoln and federal senator Stephen A. Douglas. In the 1860 presidential election, Lincoln's friends took steps to have Hesler's images copied and recirculated, cementing their stature as works of Lincoln image-making. Hesler's portable darkroom work included a widely circulated image of Minnehaha Falls, a waterfall located in what was to become the U.S. city of Minneapolis.