The Standing Lincoln

The Standing Lincoln on the grounds of Saint-Gaudens NHP

NPS/Don Freeman

Quick Facts

Location:

Cornish, NH

Amenities

1 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

There is perhaps no person more recognizable in American history than Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865). With striking detail, this 12-foot sculpture honors a larger-than-life figure. The wartime president appears to have risen from the elaborate ‘Chair of State’. His head is slightly bowed as though deep in thought. In the decades after the Civil War, Augustus Saint-Gaudens set out to depict “Abraham Lincoln: The Man.” In this work of public art, the noted orator seems ready to personally address the modern viewer. 

In 1885, Saint-Gaudens began creating a monument to the sixteenth president for Chicago’s Lincoln Park. That year, Charles Beaman enticed Saint-Gaudens to summer near his estate in Cornish, NH. The artist’s friend and attorney assured him that the area had “many Lincoln-shared men” who could be used as models. Such a man, nearly the same height and build as Lincoln, was found in Langdon Morse of nearby Windsor, VT. Two years later, this became the first public monument Saint-Gaudens completed in Cornish, NH.

“Abraham Lincoln: The Man,” also referred to as “The Standing Lincoln,” has been recast several times usually for diplomatic purposes. In 1920, a cast was presented to Great Britain and placed in Parliament Square. In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented a copy of the statue to Mexico as a symbol of Mexican and American friendship. Soon afterwards, President Johnson would sign the legislation creating Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site.

This most-recent casting of “The Standing Lincoln” was unveiled on June 26, 2016.