Abraham Lincoln was the first successful presidential candidate to have his mug on a campaign button.
A then-new tintype process allowed inexpensive reproduction of photographs on buttons.
Lincoln’s 1860 buttons show a clean-shaved candidate, but his reelection buttons show a bearded one.
It’s not known how much the photos helped get out the vote for Lincoln. He once told a crowd, “If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?”