This statuette is a reduction after Saint-Gaudens’s monument to Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), which was dedicated in Chicago’s Lincoln Park in 1887. The sculptor based the portrait on Leonard Wells Volk’s life mask of Lincoln (2007.185.2) and on photographs taken during his presidency. Saint-Gaudens’s vision of the Great Emancipator was further informed by his subject’s speeches and writings and by his own youthful remembrances of Lincoln’s visits to New York. Here, a pensive Lincoln stands before the eagle-emblazoned Chair of State, his left foot advanced and his head bowed reflectively as he prepares to deliver a public address.