SIUC lends rare Lincoln portrait to Vandalia Historic Site

It's one of Southern Illinois University's best-kept secrets. Most students and staff have never seen it. Now one of the gems of the Special Collections Research Center of Morris Library—a striking portrait of President Abraham Lincoln painted by Alban Jasper Conant in 1865— is temporarily on loan to the Vandalia Statehouse, 315 West Gallatin, while Morris Library undergoes an extensive $48 million renovation. Following a brief ceremony on February 16, the portrait went on display and will remain so for at least the next two years in the old statehouse, where Lincoln served in the state legislature in the 1830s. "Rather than crating it away in storage, we thought it appropriate to share the portrait with the people of Illinois in an historic and appropriate venue," stated SIU Library Affairs Dean David Carlson.

The portrait was acquired by Southern Illinois Normal University President Robert Allyn in the early 1880s. Rescued from a fire that consumed the original Old Normal building in 1883, the portrait was forgotten for years before being rediscovered in a closet, unframed and damaged, in the 1950s. It was professionally restored in New York City and has been housed in the exclusive American Heritage Room of Morris Library ever since.

In 1860 a prominent St. Louis businessman, William McPherson, commissioned Alban Conant to paint the Republican presidential nominee, Abraham Lincoln. From these early sittings, Conant uniquely painted Lincoln smiling, impressed by his subject's animated nature while telling stories.

This portrait, closely resembling a contemporary photograph, was realized in 1865.

For more information about viewing the Lincoln portrait in the Vandalia Statehouse, contact Mary Cole at 618-283-1161 or visit http://www.state.il.us/HPA/hs/andalia.htm

Illinois Heritage 10