More information and another photo recently thought to be from the debates: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/photo-of-lincoln-and-douglas-together.138714/
From the book Lincoln in Photographs An Album of Every Known Pose.
Look at the way Lincon towers over the crowd in this 1860 photo. I think the man in the other photo is shorter than Lincoln was. Many of the women come up to his neck in that photo.
A closeup of the man thought to be W.H.L. Wallace.
A good resemblance with this later portrait of Wallace:
The guy on the right is a man on a horse, and from the looks of it a not-all-that-tall man on a horse (though perhaps a lot of Lincoln's height was in his legs, not his trunk).
Once again, the supposed Lincoln is a man sitting on a horse so there's no comparing standing heights. The people around the mounted man are standing on their feet, not sitting on a horse. We can discard that method of comparison.
Also, keep in mind Lincoln did not yet have a chin beard, if that's what might be tricking some of us a bit to think the guy in question is Lincoln. It's likely just a shadow and a dark cravat beneath the mounted man's chin.
View attachment 291543
We could as well speculate on the women standing next to the supposed Douglas and Lincoln. If they are the spouses (a somewhat reasonable assumption) do they resemble either spouse from that time in general stature, build or dress style, to go by alternate photos?
Once again, the supposed Lincoln is a man sitting on a horse so there's no comparing standing heights. The people around the mounted man are standing on their feet, not sitting on a horse. We can discard that method of comparison.
Also, keep in mind Lincoln did not yet have a chin beard, if that's what might be tricking some of us a bit to think the guy in question is Lincoln. It's likely just a shadow and a dark cravat beneath the mounted man's chin.
View attachment 291543
We could as well speculate on the women standing next to the supposed Douglas and Lincoln. If they are the spouses (a somewhat reasonable assumption) do they resemble either spouse from that time in general stature, build or dress style, to go by alternate photos?
In any event the photo was not taken during the debate itself, which was in Washington park, and neither of the debaters that day were mounted on a horse while they debated. So this is a commemorative pose in front of a prominent home in town, but nothing in there to confirm the occasion of the pose, though we trust it to be the Debate.
I think judging from the some clearer (in some ways) version of the photo that Robert Gray posted, the taller man is not on the horse, but standing on the porch or steps. I believe that horse is still hitched to the carriage visible on the right.
The title of the thread is not meant to claim that the photo was taken during one of the debates, but at the time of the debates, of which were seven different ones in 1858, the one in Ottawa being the earliest.