Artwork Details
- Title
- Abraham Lincoln
- Artist
- Randolph Rogers (1825 – 1892)
- Year
- 1871; relocated 2001
- Location
- Kelly and Sedgely Drives
- Medium
- Bronze, on granite base
- Dimensions
- Height 9'6″ (base 22'6″)
Artwork Description
Philadelphia was one of the first cities in the nation to erect a monument to Lincoln after he was assassinated on April 14, 1865. The Lincoln Monument Association, chaired by Mayor Alexander Henry, was formed on May 22, 1865, and in a little over a year raised $22,000. Sculptor Randolph Rogers was awarded the commission for the memorial.
Rogers rendered Lincoln in the naturalistic style that was prevalent in mid-nineteenth-century portraits. Seated, with quill in hand, Lincoln is shown just having signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The work was enthusiastically received by 50,000 people at its unveiling on September 22, 1871. In 2001 the monument was moved from its location on an island in the midst of Kelly Drive to a more pedestrian-oriented site just east of the roadway.
Adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, 1992). Penny Balkin Bach was Executive Director of the Association for Public Art from 1980 to 2022.
Artwork Credits
Gift of the Lincoln Monument Association
Owned by the City of Philadelphia
Artwork Media
Museum Without Walls
Voices:
KIRK SAVAGE wrote Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War, and Monument in 19th Century America.
HAROLD HOLZER was the co-chairman of the United States Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.
MILLARD F. ROGERS, JR. (1932-2014) is the author of Randolph Rogers: American Sculptor in Rome.
Producer: Jonathan Mitchell