Abraham Lincoln Statues

 

I have been collecting postcards of Abraham Lincoln statues for several years. Above is one of my favorites that shows the Lincoln statue that was in front of the Avondale School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Although  the view of this statue isn't very good, I like the postcard because of the school children surrounding the statue. This is a bronze statue with a woman half-kneeling at the base. It was sculpted by William Granville Hastings, who died before this statue was dedicated in 1902.

There is a copy of the Cincinnati Lincoln statue with the woman in Bunker Hill, Ill., and copies of the Lincoln statue only in Jefferson and Sioux City, Iowa. The postcard of the Bunker Hill statue shows Lincoln and the kneeling woman more clearly.

I never thought that I would end up collecting Lincoln statues. At one time Lincoln postcards were fairly popular with collectors, but few collectors are interested in them now. I got my start with my first postcard collection when I was in 6th grade and my family visited Springfield and New Salem, Illinois. Lincoln's New Salem is a reconstruction of the village where Abraham Lincoln spent his early adulthood and Springfield is where he lived for many years before leaving for Washington to become President. It was on that trip that I bought my first postcards ever. A couple of years later, my 8th grade trip was to the same area, and I bought some more Lincoln postcards.

Here is a photo of me (on the left) with my mother and sisters in front of Lincoln's home in Springfield.

I don't have photos of any statues from my trips, but I do have a postcard of a Lincoln statue in New Salem State Park that was among the first postcards I bought. This is a nine foot statue of Lincoln as a young man in New Salem. It shows Lincoln as a frontiersman and student. It was sculptured by Arvard Fairbanks and was presented to the state of Illinois in 1954.

When I started seriously collecting postcards many years later, I kept my Lincoln souvenir postcards apart from my main collection. I started giving them a second look in 2009, which was the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth. I bought a book "Abraham Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography in Postcards" by James D. Ristine that was published in 2008. That book includes a chapter on "Monuments & Memorials." I was surprised at how many Lincoln statues there are and how many have appeared on postcards. I now have nearly 70 different Lincoln statues on postcards and am still looking for more. You can see my collection here: Abraham Lincoln Statues, Monuments, and Memorials.

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