Photo tampering before Photoshop!

Hany Farid, Professor of Computer Science from Dartmouth University, has uncovered some tomfoolery with regard to photo manipulation dating back to the late 1880s. Below are examples of photos that have been tampered with:

Abraham Lincoln – circa 1860

This famous portrait of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is really a composite of Lincoln’s head and the Southern politician John Calhoun’s body.

General Ulysses S. Grant – circa 1864

Researchers at the Library of Congress revealed that this print is a composite of three separate prints: (1) the head in this photo is taken from a portrait of Grant; (2) the horse and body are those of Major General Alexander M. McCook; and (3) the backgoround is of Confederate prisoners captured at the battle of Fisher’s Hill, VA.

Stalin – circa 1930

Stalin routinely removed his enemies from photographs. In this photograph a commissar was removed from the original photograph after falling out of favor with Stalin.

Mao Tse-tung – 1936

Mao Tse-tung also had removed people that had fallen out of favor with him. In this case, Mao had Po Ku removed from the photograph.

Adolf Hitler – 1930

Adolf Hitler had Joseph Goebbels (second from the right) removed from the original photograph.

Via Dartmouth