Yes, even back in the 1800s, people were having photographs taken of themselves! Abraham Lincoln had a more legitimate excuse than most though - he was the serving President of the United States of America. This official portrait was taken in March of 1865. On the 15th of the following month, Lincoln was dead at the age of 56.
Like Kennedy nearly a century later, Lincoln had met his end at the hands of an assassin's bullet. The President had attended Ford's Theatre to see a show on his final night on Earth, and found assassin John Wiles Booth there waiting for him. Lincoln would never have seen the bullet coming - he was shot in the back of the head at point-blank range. Booth's motivation for the shooting was a grim one; he was a racist, appalled by Lincoln's plans to allow black people to vote in elections.