Sculpting Lincoln, Part 7

Lincoln the Friendly Neighbor

Bronze Statue by Avard Fairbanks, 1897-1987
Dedicated July 4, 1959.
Located at Lincoln Middle School, Berwyn, Illinois
GPS Coordinates: N 41° 51.476'W 87° 47.113'

Story and photos by Carl Volkmann

Frank Kinst, an Abraham Lincoln enthusiast and president of the Lincoln Federal Savings and Loan Association in Berwyn, Illinois, started planning for a new bank building with modern architecture in the late 1950s. Kinst also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Lincoln College, the Civil War Round Table, and the board of the Illinois State Historical Society. Determined to enhance the community of Berwyn, he decided that a large statue of Lincoln at the new bank would be appropriate. He consulted with Ralph G. Newman of the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago and arranged to commission Avard Fairbanks to create a Lincoln statue to be placed in front of the new bank.

Fairbanks was born on March 2, 1897, in Provo, Utah. His father, John B. Fairbanks, was an accomplished artist and painted many of the murals in Mormon temples. Fairbanks' talent was recognized at an early age. When he was twelve years old, he sculpted a clay rabbit and entered it into a contest at the State Fair. When the judge learned that a boy had sculpted the rabbit, he refused to award the first prize that the young Fairbanks had won. This experience only made him more determined to become an artist. Fairbanks soon joined his father at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. He went to Paris in 1913 and studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Ecole Moderne. At the outbreak of World War I, Fairbanks returned home to Salt Lake City. He then studied at Yale University and eventually joined the faculty of the University of Michigan.

With the support and encouragement of the bank's board of directors, Kinst, Newman, and Fairbanks decided to depict Lincoln as a friendly neighbor. As a theme, Fairbanks chose a phrase from a letter Lincoln wrote to Judge Joseph Gillespie in 1849: "The better part of one's life consists of his friendships." This statement suggested to Fairbanks a warm interest in the life of the community, including its children. Fairbanks explained, "In the statue, Lincoln places his great hand upon the shoulder of youth as if on every young boy in our country, in every walk of life, and in every activity. Thus, symbolized in bronze, his guiding hand inspires every boy to greatness in the field he will choose for the future. The young lady holds onto the arm of Lincoln as she looks up to him. There must be someone to guide our people in times of stress and dissension. Such is her expression of confidence in this great man. She sees in this stalwart person the strength of character needed. Her admiration is that of a nation."

The unveiling and dedication ceremony was held on July 4, 1959, in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. U.S. Senator Paul Douglas gave the dedicatory address. Frank Kinst, Ralph Newman, and Avard Fairbanks also attended the ceremony. Illinois Governor William Stratton was invited to participate but could not attend. When there was a change of ownership and name at the bank in the 1990s, the Lincoln statue was no longer appropriate for the site. However, the bank donated the statue to the new Lincoln Middle School at 16th and Elmwood Streets in Berwyn. The statue needed a new and taller pedestal, so students at the school conducted a fundraising campaign and raised $11,000 in pennies. It was enough money to construct a rose-colored pedestal and to pay for moving costs. Rededicated in the Lincoln School front yard in 1997, Lincoln the Friendly Neighbor continues to enrich the Berwyn community.

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Lincoln the Lawyer

Bronze Statue by Boris Lovet-Lorski, 1894-1973
Dedicated September 8, 1946
Located at the Macon County Building, Decatur, Illinois
GPS Coordinates: N 39° 50.411'W 88° 57.221'

Abraham Lincoln began a 31-year association with Decatur in March of 1830 when he and 13 family members camped in a clearing in the small town. At that time, the town contained fewer than a dozen log houses. The next day the family journeyed to a plot of land on the Sangamon River, ten miles southwest of Decatur. During the next year, Lincoln spent his time splitting logs and helping farm fifteen acres of land. He also gave his first political speech in Decatur in 1830. He spoke on the subject of navigation on the Sangamon River, and the speech brought him to the attention of local politicians.

The next spring the rest of the Lincoln family moved to Coles County, Illinois, and Lincoln eventually settled in the New Salem area. He later made annual visits to Decatur as he rode the Eighth Judicial Circuit. Lincoln was probably present at a Whig Party meeting in Decatur in October of 1844. He attended a convention of Illinois newspaper editors opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska bill in Decatur on February 22, 1856. Four years later the Illinois State Republican Party held its convention in Decatur on May 9, 1860, only nine days before Lincoln's Republican nomination for president in Chicago.

Mr. and Mrs. Roy N. Dawson, lifelong residents of Decatur, had aspired for years to present a lasting memorial of Abraham Lincoln to their home city. Mrs. R.C. Scherer, former president of the Decatur Garden Club, suggested that the couple commission a statue of Lincoln. Based on the recommendation of Dudley Crafts Watson of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Dawsons selected Boris Lovet-Lorski of New York as the artist.

Lovet-Lorski was born in Lithuania in 1894 and raised on his parents' estate. After studying at the Academy of Art in St. Petersburg, Russia, from 1914 to 1916, he immigrated to Boston in 1920 and later lived in New York City. The artist began work on the Lincoln statue in his Long Island studio in January 1946, and it was delivered in Decatur the following August.

Lovet-Lorski created Lincoln the Lawyer entirely from memory. He later said, "When a sculptor is called upon for a portrayal, he usually goes to a library or art gallery to study his subject and look at prints. However, the vision of Lincoln is so impregnated in my mind that I needed neither books nor prints for reference. I looked within my own mind for ten days, created the picture there, and then went ahead with the model." The artist decided to portray Lincoln as a "young lawyer as he appeared in the courts of central Illinois, with the determination and ambition of youth reflected in his slightly raised chin while his hope for justice might be interpreted by the pleading gesture of one hand and arm."

The statue was unveiled by Mary Louise Scherer, daughter of Mrs. R. C. Scherer, at the Macon County Courthouse on September 8, 1946. Many members of the audience were surprised to see such a realistic portrayal of Lincoln. Gazing forward and standing with his feet slightly apart, Lincoln has a roll of papers in his left hand, and his right hand is held out as if in appeal.

A reporter from the Decatur Herald wrote that most of the spectators thought that the statue was "not pretty, but that they also felt its virtue. Nothing of the youthful awkwardness of the tall, lanky Lincoln is omitted. His huge hands hang from the too short coat sleeves, and his sizable feet are firmly planted on the pedestal. His rugged features are easily discernible, and his mouth and eyes are set in the determination of youth."

Mayor James Hedrick and Reginald Neal, director of the Decatur Art Center, spoke at the dedication. Dudley Crafts Watson of the Art Institute of Chicago delivered the dedicatory address. He called the statue "the livest Lincoln ever to be put into bronze."

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