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ABRAHAM LINCOLN From His Own Words and Contemporary Accounts |
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20. A MAN'S HAND
Leonard Volk, the eminent sculptor, journeyed to Springfield during the Presidental campaign in 1860 to make molds of Lincoln's hands. Volk also, at another time, made a life mask of Lincoln's features. No one who has examined casts of Lincoln's hands made from the Volk molds can fail to be impressed by their size, symmetry, and appearance of great strength. In the paragraphs below Volk tells of making the molds.
By previous appointment I was to cast Mr. Lincoln's hands on the Sunday following this memorable Saturday, at nine A. M. I found him ready, but he looked more grave and serious than he had appeared on the previous days. I wished him to hold something in his right hand, and he looked for a piece of pasteboard, but could find none. I told him a round stick would do as well as anything. Thereupon he went to the wood-shed, and I heard the saw go, and he soon returned to the dining-room (where I did the work), whittling off the end of a piece of broom-handle. I remarked to him that he need not whittle off the edges.
"O, well," said he," I thought I would like to have it nice.
When I had successfully cast the mold of the right hand, I began the left, pausing a few moments to hear Mr. Lincoln tell me about a scar on the thumb.
"You have heard that they call me a rail-splitter, and you saw them carrying rails in the procession Saturday evening; well, it is true that I did split rails, and one day, while I was sharpening a wedge on a log, the ax glanced and nearly took my thumb off, and there is the scar, you see.
The right hand appeared swollen as compared with the left, on account of excessive hand-shaking the evening before; this difference is distinctly shown in the cast.
That Sunday evening I returned to Chicago with the molds of his hands, three photographic negatives of him, the identical black alpaca campaign-suit of 1858, and a pair of Lynn newly-made pegged boots. The clothes were all burned up in the great Chicago fire. The casts of the face and hands I saved by taking them with me to Rome, and they have crossed the sea four times.
WHITNEY, Life on the Circuit with Lincoln, QUOTING VOLK IN Century Magazine, DECEMBER, 1881.
During the 1860 Presidential campaign the
sculptor, Leonard Volk, went to Springfield following Lincoln's
nomination by the Republican National Convention at Chicago and made
plaster casts of Lincoln's hands. The two top illustrations show his
left hand, the bottom one is of the right hand which clenches a piece of
a broomstick. Volk says the right hand was swollen from excessive
handshaking at a reception the previous evening. Reproduced from
original casts in the Lincoln Museum (Ford Theatre) in
Washington.
The letter that induced Lincoln to grow whiskers.
It was written by little 11-year-old Grace Bedell. The original letter
is in the possession of the Hon. George A. Dondero, of Michigan, to whom
it was given by Mrs. Robert Lincoln. Reproduced from a photostatic copy
in the Lincoln Museum (Ford Theatre). The envelope illustrated is a
campaign envelope of the period.
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Last Modified: Thurs, Sep 11 2003 10:00:00 pm PST |
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