Abraham Lincoln

Born Hardin County, Kentucky

Leonard Wells Volk made his life mask of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, before Lincoln began his run for the presidency. Volk had wanted to create a bust of him to add to his collection of American statesmen, but Lincoln did not have time to pose. Poet and editor Richard Watson Gilder, who owned a bronze version of the work, wrote after Lincoln’s assassination, “This bronze doth keep the very form and mold / Of our great martyr’s face. Yes, this is he: / That brow all wisdom and benignity.…”

Nacido en Hardin County, Kentucky

Leonard Wells Volk le hizo a Abraham Lincoln una mascara del natural en 1860, antes de que iniciara su campana presidencial. Volk había querido crear un busto de Lincoln para su colección de políticos estadounidenses, pero este no tuvo tiempo para posar. El poeta y editor Richard Watson Gilder, quien poseía una versión en bronce de la obra, escribió tras el asesinato de Lincoln: “Este bronce conserva la forma fiel / del rostro de nuestro gran mártir. Sí, es él: / esa frente que es toda sabiduría y bondad...”.

National Museum of American History (now National Museum of American History); transferred to NPG 1971

From National Portrait Gallery, released by the Smithsonian under CC0 through its Open Access programme. The Smithsonian does not endorse ModelsXi. Its own page has the object record and other copies, including full-resolution and print-ready files where they exist. The file is measured in millimetres, so engines that expect metres will show it 1,000 times too large; the size above is the real one.