On February 27, 1860, Abraham Lincoln spoke at Cooper Union in New York. The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery says the speech “convinced his audience that he was not a country bumpkin but a serious constitutional thinker.” Before the speech, Lincoln sat for the photographer Mathew Brady. According to the Gallery, Brady remembered that he drew Lincoln’s collar up high to improve his appearance.
Harper’s Weekly turned the photograph into a full-page woodcut. Later artists smoothed Lincoln’s hair and refined his features. Lincoln is reported to have said: “Brady and the Cooper Institute made me President.” The wording varies between sources, and one says only that he “reputedly” said it.