A West Chester conservator has restored an orphan presidential portrait that is now calling Washington, D.C. home, writes Roger Catlin for Smithsonian Magazine.

W.F.K. Traver’s Abraham Lincoln painting is spending time at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. The painting was restored by Mark Bockrath so it could be as good as new in the renowned museum.  

“It was extremely thick, a little bit yellow, and it was quite opaque,” he said. “I had never removed varnish quite that thick.” In a way, the yellow film might have protected Lincoln against the elements, specifically from the smoking inside the council chambers.

The popular portrait has been quite the nomad since it made its Philadelphia debut in 1876 at the first official World’s Fair. Then, it lived in the smokey chambers of the New Jersey borough’s council for eight decades.  

At one point, it also lived in a subcommittee room inside the U.S. Capitol, and in the twenties, the painting was owned by the Rockefeller family.  

“This painting was an orphan for a long time, which is another reason we’re so happy that it’s in this beautiful home,” said museum director Kim Sajet.  

Read more about the portrait in Smithsonian Magazine.  

A historian at the National Portrait Gallery discusses the life masks of Abraham Lincoln.