John Harrison Littlefield (1835-1902) also known as J. H. littlefield was a painter. He is best known for having painted an image of Abraham Lincoln which was engraved and featured on the United States five-dollar bill.

John H. Littlefield
Born
John Harrison Littlefield

1825
Died1902(1902-00-00) (aged 76–77)
Known forPainting
Notable workAbraham Lincoln portrait

Biography

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Littlefield was born in 1825 and his family were from Cicero, Illinois and they were friends with the future US president Abraham Lincoln.[1][2] In 1887 Littlefield told the Brooklyn Eagle that he was a student in Abraham Lincoln's offce for two years.[3]

 
Abraham Lincoln portrait by John H. Littlefield (1865)

In 1869 Henry Gugler completed an engraving of Abraham Lincoln which was based on an 1865 painting by Littlefield. The Lincoln engraving took Gugler three years to complete.[4] The engraved image was used on the United States five-dollar bill beginning with the Series of 1928; the bill featured the portrait of Lincoln.[1] He was also responsible for painting the image of US president Ulysses S. Grant.[5] He died in 1902.[2]

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Brown University Portrait Collection". library.brown.edu. Brown University.
  2. ^ a b "Littlefield, John H. in Art & Artists Files in the Smithsonian Libraries' Collections". www.sil.si.edu. Smithsonian. Retrieved 20 October 2024.
  3. ^ "J.H. Littlefield; Memories of Lincoln". Brooklyn Eagle. 16 October 1887. Retrieved 20 October 2024.
  4. ^ Sullivan, George (2000). Picturing Lincoln: Famous Photographs that Popularized the President. New York, New Yok: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-395-91682-7. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
  5. ^ The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art. New York: Leavitt, Trow, & Company. 1868. p. 1292. Retrieved 20 October 2024.