This is an absolute gem. By descent in a family scrapbook containing much other Lincolniana and related material from the family of John Hay.
This is an original sketch in the hand of John Hay, taken impromptu, of Abraham Lincoln resting beside a stump. It was likely during his campaign for the presidency, when he first grew his beard. They appear to have taken a roadside break and he is hard at work perhaps on a campaign speech or similar.
Quite small, at 3 x 4 inches or so, signed, "Hay" and accompanied by a separate full autograph of John Hay.
John Milton Hay (October 8, 1838 – July 1, 1905) began his career as a private secretary and assistant to Abraham Lincoln, Hay's highest office was United States Secretary of State under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.
Born in Indiana to an anti-slavery family that moved to Illinois when he was young, Hay showed great potential, and his family sent him to Brown University. After graduation in 1858, Hay read law in his uncle's office in Springfield, Illinois, adjacent to that of Lincoln. Hay worked for Lincoln's successful presidential campaign and became one of his private secretaries at the White House. Throughout the American Civil War, Hay was close to Lincoln and stood by his deathbed after the President was shot at Ford's Theatre.