Seems photo retouching is nothing new and goes back to the earliest days of photography.
After Lincoln’s assassination, there was a dearth of “heroic-style†pictures of the president. So one portrait painter got creative. On a print of the late president, Thomas Hicks superimposed Lincoln’s head onto the body of John C. Calhoun—the virulent racist and slavery proponent who did not exactly see eye-to-eye with the 16th president.
“The Great Lengths Taken to Make Abraham Lincoln Look Good in Portraits,” by Michael Waters
Great article on this subject: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/abraham-lincoln-photos-edited
Where I first heard this info:
https://www.pushkin.fm/episode/episode-2-deepfakes-and-the-future-of-truth/