Is this young Abraham Lincoln?

For over 30 years, a controversy has swirled over what may be the earliest known photographic image of Abraham Lincoln.... a healthy young man in the prime of life.... lacks what collectors call "provenance," a documented evidentiary history that establishes without break the exact chain of ownership of an antique or historical object of interest. Not long after Kaplan purchased the unidentified daguerreotype, the New York art gallery director died and the gallery's records that should have indicated the image's seller were lost....