Arrangements were made for the erection of the statue after the
assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. The statue was intended to be placed opposite to that of the
equestrian statue of George Washington on the southwest corner of the square, which was also designed by Henry Kirke Brown and was a widely acclaimed statue. Although Brown studied sculpture in Italy like the majority of his contemporaries, he was still among those who were attempting to establish a distinctly American sculptural style. This can be noted in his sculpture of Lincoln, as he combines a classical pose with a naturalist depiction. According to a New York Times report of the unveiling, the crowd watched as the monument was assembled and the pedestal of the monument was formed from three large granite stones. The first, the largest stone ever quarried in America up to this point, weighed over seventeen tons, while the second weighed 16,000 and the third 8,000. The height of the pedestal was 24 feet and the statue itself nearly 11 feet tall. The Abraham Lincoln Statue was cast by the Wood Bronze Company located in
Philadelphia, PA. The granite that makes up the pedestal is specified as gray granite, and was taken from Dix Island quarries. In 1875, a stone and bronze rail fence was constructed around the statue of Lincoln; the fence included an inscription of text from his
second inaugural address, "with malice toward none; charity toward all." During the 1930 redesign of Union Square Park, the statue was moved to its current location, but the fence remained. The statue is in axial alignment with the
Independence Flagstaff and
George Washington. It was conserved in 1992. ==See also==