Is That an Emoticon in 1862?

Is That an Emoticon in 1862? is an article by By JENNIFER 8. LEE about what clearly is the oldest emoticon evar. Or close to it.

This is less of a TOTI and more like four score and hella years ago on the Interwebs... But there you have it, an emoticon in a news clipping transcribing Abraham Lincoln's 1862 speech.

"A historical newspaper specialist at the digital archival company Proquest believes he has found an example of a sideways winking smiley face embedded in The New York Times transcript of an 1862 speech given by President Lincoln. Other historians are not so sure, saying the semicolon alongside a closed parenthesis is either a mistake or a misinterpretation of something that is perfectly grammatical for that era."

Cute.

(From my friend Justin)