Abraham Lincoln

Born Hardin County, Kentucky

Soon after Abraham Lincoln won the Republican presidential nomination, in May of 1860, sculptor Leonard Wells Volk made casts of Lincoln’s hands. The right hand is shown grasping a sawed-off section of a broom handle, which Lincoln obligingly fetched from a shed when the artist suggested that he hold on to something. Lincoln smoothed the edges of the wood, reportedly saying, “I thought I would like to have it nice.” During their session, Volk was already thinking of using these casts, in combination with his recently completed Lincoln bust, to fashion a full-length statue.

Nacido en Hardin County, Kentucky

Poco después de que Abraham Lincoln obtuviera la nominación presidencial republicana, en mayo de 1860, el escultor Leonard Wells Volk hizo moldes de sus manos. La mano derecha aparece agarrando un trozo de madera cortado de una escoba, el cual Lincoln gentilmente buscó en un cobertizo cuando el artista le sugirió que sujetara algo. Se dice que Lincoln lijó los bordes de la madera y dijo: “Me pareció que debía quedar bonito”. Durante la sesión, Volk ya planeaba usar estos moldes, junto con el busto de Lincoln que acababa de hacer, para crear una estatua de cuerpo entero.

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.