Who was just below the president as he delivered his inaugural speech?

• A. Alexander Gardner
• B. Mathew Brady
• C. Horace Greeley
• D. Ulysses S. Grant

Answer: (A)

The moment is about recognizing who captured a famous scene from Lincoln’s inauguration. In that iconic photograph of the ceremony, the person shown just below the president—the photographer leaning into position to take the shot—is Alexander Gardner. He was a prominent Civil War photographer who worked on coverage of the inauguration, and his name is the one attached to that particular image.

Mathew Brady is also a well-known photographer from the era, but this specific shot is associated with Gardner, not Brady. Horace Greeley was a newspaper editor who covered the event in writing, not as the photographer, and Ulysses S. Grant, while a key figure in the era, is not the photographer behind the inaugural image.