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.But the campground later closed down, and the statue is now inaccessible to the public, and deteriorating.Its great size has always attracted vandals, and at one time it was reported riddled with bullet holes—a sad decline for what townspeople call their “wandering giant.”1 (Charleston Area Chamber of Commerce)1.Charleston Area Chamber of Commerce fact sheet; undated clipping in the Chamber of Commerce “Lincoln statue” file; Charleston Town Crier, October 9, 1976, May 27, 1978, November 13, 1978.See also illustration in Talk Magazine, February 2000: 146.WITHOUT VITRIOLBritish war correspondent Edward Dicey once observed that Lincoln’s mottled complexion looked as if it had been “scarred by vitriol.”1 Sculptor Leo Cherne (b.1912) achieved the effect with his impressionistic bust, yet made Lincoln seem endearing and attractive as well—and perhaps sympathetically beleaguered.Modern beleaguered presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon each owned copies of the statuette, and Nixon displayed it behind his desk in the Oval Office.This is Johnson’s copy.(Lyndon Baines Johnson Library Collection) 1.Edward Dicey, “Washington During the War,” Macmillan’s Magazine 6 (May 1862), 16–17.MAN OF SORROWSAn admiring contemporary lauded sculptor Jo Davidson (1883–1952) as a “biographer in bronze,” and the chronically caustic observer Dorothy Parker may actually have intended a compliment, as well as the usual gibe, when she dubbed him “the plastic historian.”1 Davidson became quite famous during his lifetime, and was widely praised for his portraits from life of Helen Keller and others.2 So adept did he become at portraying his contemporaries that his historical sculptures tended to be forgotten.Yet alone among modern sculpted portraits of Lincoln, Davidson’s depiction powerfully suggests the man burdened by the cares of the office—his face creased and timeworn, and his eyes downcast as if focusing on the unfathomable sorrows of the casualties of war.(Oklahoma City Art Museum; gift of Mr.and Mrs.S.N.Goldman) 1.Jo Davidson, Between Sittings: An Informal Autobiography (New York: Dial Press, 1951), 315.2.See “Jo Davidson: Insightful Sculptor of the Heroes of his Time,” Washington Post, 1September 1978; also Catalogue of the first retrospective exhibition of sculpture by Jo Davidson, November 26, 1947-February 1, 1948, National Academy of Arts & Letters, New York; and Jo Davidson: Portrait Sculpture (Washington, DC: The National Portrait Gallery, 1978).None of the catalogues for Davidson exhibitions included illustrations of his Lincoln sculpture.PRESIDENTIAL TALISMANEver since Richard M.Nixon first placed sculptor Leo Cherne’s rugged little head of Lincoln behind his desk in the White House Oval Office, Lincoln images have served as the background talisman for countless televised presidential addresses to the nation—often, unfortunately, accenting the delivery of dire news during White House scandals.The comforting presence of Lincoln encourages presidents to endure criticism—Bill Clinton said so to Harold Holzer during a visit to the White House in 1998—but it is also used by modern presidents to confirm what historian Noble Cunningham has called “the heritage of the presidency in the building of the nation, and summoning of that heritage for its preservation.a heritage worthy of protecting” today.1 Here, President Clinton signs a piece of legislation as this ca.1958 bust by Robert Berks (b.1922), which the president himself owns, looms behind him.Nearby is a replica of Jo Davidson’s bust of Franklin D.Roosevelt.(White House Photograph)1.Noble Cunningham, Popular Images of the Presidency from Washington to Lincoln (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991), 128.LINCOLN MEETS HIS YOUNGEST ADVISORWhen President-elect Lincoln’s train chugged into New York State en route to the 1861 inauguration, the first village at which it stopped was tiny Westfield.Here, Lincoln remembered, lived the little girl who had sent him the charming letter back in October, advising him that he “would look a great deal better”—and win more votes—if he grew whiskers.1 Now, as he stepped out from the train to greet the well-wishers who had turned out to greet him, the luxuriantly bearded Lincoln scanned the crowd in search of his young correspondent.“If she is here, I would like to see her,” he declared.“I think her name was Miss Barlly.” Lincoln got the name wrong—it was in fact Grace Bedell—but when she was identified among the throng, Lincoln stepped off the train and, as the crowd parted, made his way toward the startled child and planted “several hearty kisses” on her cheek.2 The moment of recognition—Lincoln extending his hand, Grace nearly frozen with shyness and surprise—was captured by local sculptor Don Sottile (b.1946) for a larger-than-life bronze sculptural group erected in downtown Westfield in 1999.The site, where only a few years ago a vermin-infested, abandoned movie theatre blighted the town, is not far from the old railroad stop where Lincoln met Grace on the eve of the Civil War.(Photo: Don Sottile)1.Basler, et al., eds., Collected Works of Lincoln, 4:130.2.Ibid.219.LINCOLN AT FREEPORTStephen A.Douglas stands and speaks, while Abraham Lincoln merely sits and listens, in Lily Tolpo’s (b.1917) life-size sculpture, erected on the site of the candidates’ 1858 joint meeting at Freeport, Illinois.There is irony to the portrayal.Lincoln had been criticized, even by his own supporters, for being too passive at the opening debate six days earlier in Ottawa, and he opened the Freeport debate aggressively [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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