At the request of the sculpture Leonard Wells Volk, Abraham Lincoln visited him at his Chicago studio in April of 1860. He had just returned from his perhaps most important pre-presidential address at The Cooper Union in New York. Volk recalls hearing Lincoln bound up the stairs to the second floor studio and would find him more than agreeable. Lincoln would even swap jokes and stories and at one point Volk claims to have brought him to tears of laughter after telling the eager Lincoln a joke. 

                   

Warm plaster was then applied to Lincoln's face and after one hour it was removed. The cast produced, caused Lincoln to remark, "It was the animal himself". This mask was then used by Volk for his own interpretation of Lincoln in the form of busts and statues.

By 1887, the mask after some questionable travel ended up in the hands of Volk's son and from there eventually to the hands of the famous American sculpture Augustus Saint-Gaudens. In an attempt to preserve the image of Lincoln and to generate income for the preservation of the mask, in 1888 a handful of plaster copies were made under the supervision of Volk, Saint-Gaudens and his master plaster craftsman. From these a few bronze busts were also produced. All of which went to wealthy investors. For the surviving plaster masks all but a few have ended up in museums or private collections. The original mask and bronze are currently in the Smithsonian Institute. 

                        

As we have learned more about Lincoln and come to appreciate his presidency, his image has also become more important. The younger 1860 Lincoln portrays an apparent "animal himself." A man ready to move from country lawyer to Commander in Chief of the United States of America. However, by 1865 an emotionally devastated and physically ill man emerged.          

This mask comes to represent a period in history when decisions for the future of not only this country but the democratic process of the free world were critical. The candidates chosen to enact these decisions were of the utmost importance, lives were to be changed and for that matter a country moved in a grand manner. Abraham Lincoln was at its epicenter. The complexities, genius and torment of the man can only be imagined with closed eyes and hands extended to the bronze. I have listed a few references below that give an authored glimpse into the inexplicable phenomenon of Abraham Lincoln, the man, and what may have defined his life and presidency.

Kundhardt, Philip B., Lincoln, an Illustrated Biography (Published in the U.S. by Alfred A. Knopf) 1992

Degregorio, William A., The Complete Book of the U.S. Presidents (Eaton Press) 2002

Fornieri, Joseph R., The Language of Liberty (Published in the U.S. by Regnery Publishing) 2003

Holzer, Harold, Lincoln at Cooper Union (Simon and Schuster) 2005

Needleman, Jacob, The American Soul- Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Founders (Tarcher/ Putnam) 2002

Humes, James C., The Wit and Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln (Gramercy Books) 1996

Shenk, Joshua Wolf, Lincoln's Melancholy (Houghton Mifflin) 2005

Goodwin, Doris Kearns, Team of Rivals- The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (Simon & Schuster) 2005

Bumgarner, John R. M.D., The Health of the Presidents (McFarland & Co. Inc.) 1994