Folk art statue of Abraham Lincoln
Unknown artist, ca. 1865
Painted wood
Gift of Mrs. Arthur C. Hoskins
MHS Collections
1962 147 0001
Exploring American folk art—typically defined as artwork created by either untrained or non-professional artists—may be one of the best ways to witness popular, cultural understandings of liberty and freedom. Leaders of Republicanism have long been iconic figures in the United States. Amateur artists and craftspeople often utilized likenesses of Republican statesmen to decorate their homes and embellish their creations. This was especially the case in times of crisis, when the concepts of liberty and freedom were rapidly undergoing change. During the Civil War as the fractured nation redefined the ideal that “all men are created equal,” most northerners and abolitionists saw Abraham Lincoln as an important symbol of universal rights. The statuette pictured here, showing the dapper president standing straight and tall, reflects this sensibility; however, to southern sympathizers and slaveholders Lincoln was less a figure to be lionized and more akin to the Devil incarnate. These Americans also created their own, often less seen, iconography—picturing the president as a symbol of national tyranny.
This artist may have made statuary over a period of some years; and may have gained inspiration from this widely-circulated and well-known Matthew Brady portrait of a standing Lincoln following a speech at the Cooper Institute in New York in 1860.
Mathew Brady Portrait of Lincoln
Mathew Brady
Silver Gelatin Print
February 27, 1860
New York, LC-USZ62-5803
Organized by the Virginia Historical
Society with additional support from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter
Foundation and the
Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Changing Exhibitions Fund, American. Support
in St. Louis is provided by The Stanley and Lucy Lopata Foundation
This exhibition has been made possible in part
by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Great Ideas Brought to Life.
