This piece is by Louis Slobodkin who was a mid-century American sculptor and children’s books illustrator. This Abraham Lincoln sculpture was originally created for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Before the fair opened, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Edward Bruce, took a personal dislike to the piece, claiming that it lacked dignity. He ordered the massive 15-foot plaster statue dismantled and destroyed in the middle of the night. This generated widespread outcry and publicity for Slobodkin’s design. As a settlement, the federal government commissioned Slobodkin to recast his design, resulting in the permanent 7-foot bronze version that stands today in the Department of the Interior.
