The bronze sculpture depicts Lincoln standing clutching his lapel with his left hand...seemingly in thought about to speak. A chair is set behind him. The figures would appear to be slightly larger than life-sized. The rectangular plinth is about 10 feet tall and appears to be made of granite. Stars circle the top of the plinth.
Lincoln, of course, was the 16th President of the United States...and usually considered to have been the best President. Read more about him at (
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This website (
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"This is a replica of a work by the American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens which is located in Lincoln Park, Chicago.
The Parliament Square statue was unveiled in July 1920. There was firstly a public meeting at Central Hall, Westminster, at which the American Ambassador made a speech of presentation, and the then Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, responded, accepting the statue on behalf of the British people. A procession then made its way to Parliament Square, where the Duke of Connaught unveiled the statue.
WORK 20/106 contains correspondence from 7th February 1914 to 24th November 1921 and the correspondents include the British Committee for the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of peace among English Speaking Peoples (“British Committee”), the American Committee, Office of Works and its First Commissioner at the time Sir Alfred Mond, the Middlesex Standing Joint Committee at Middlesex County Council, the Foreign Office, the British Embassy in Washington and the Treasury. There are also extracts from debates in both the House of Commons and Lords.
The opening letter from the British Committee announces that they wish to donate a replica of Saint-Gaudens’ bronze of Abraham Lincoln in Chicago for erection at a site in London. Parliament Square is suggested and Sir George Frampton is quoted as saying that the Chicago statue was “perhaps the most beautiful monument in America.” The presentation of the replica was set to coincide with the centenary of the Treaty of Ghent and the completion of 100 years of Peace among English-speaking peoples.
By May of 1914 the site in Parliament Square had been approved and we read that arrangements would be made for the casting to be carried out in America.
The opening of war in 1914 then appears to have caused the matter to be put to one side, until March 1917 when the matter is revived and the British Committee announce that their colleagues in America, the American Committee, wished to substitute the Saint-Gaudens sculpture with a replica of the sculpture of Lincoln by George Gray Barnard which had recently been unveiled in Cincinnati. The Barnard statue was considered superior to that of Saint-Gaudens. The British Committee said that they had agreed to this change and that a copy of the Barnard statue was being cast. Office of Works then wrote to a Mr.Harry E Brittain asking what the view of “artistic people” would be to the change of sculptor. The reply was that amongst those asked the Saint-Gaudens was considered the better work. Notwithstanding this the Office of Works wrote to the British Committee accepting the Barnard replica instead of that by Saint-Gaudens.
As news got round about this change we now see correspondence which shows that the change would prove controversial.
The American Committee then wrote on 30th March 1917 ( letter written by John A Stewart ) extolling the virtues of the Barnard statue. although it was never quite clear as to the extent to which Stewart was voicing his own wishes/preferences rather than those of the committee."