Lincoln Memorial at Waterfront Park is a statue of

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

, depicted as he would have looked before he became

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

. The sculpture of him is bareheaded, seated on a rock with an open law book in one hand and the other in an outstretched, welcoming gesture. The statue is located at Waterfront Park in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. The Lincoln Memorial in Louisville is part of the

Lincoln Heritage Trail The Lincoln Heritage Trail is a designation for a series of highways in the U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky that links communities with pre-presidential period historical ties to U.S. president Abraham Lincoln. History Fifty years ...

. The statue and its accompanying bas-relief historical panels were created by American sculptor

Ed Hamilton Edward Norton Hamilton, Jr. (born February 14, 1947) is an American sculptor living in Louisville, Kentucky, who specializes in public art. His most famous work is ''The Spirit of Freedom'', a memorial to black American Civil War, Civil War vetera ...

. Landscape design for Waterfront Park was by Hargreaves Associates. The 2006

Kentucky General Assembly The Kentucky General Assembly, also called the Kentucky Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It comprises the Kentucky Senate and the Kentucky House of Representatives. The General Assembly meets annually in the ...

authorized $2 million for the memorial, which was supplemented by private donations.

The Abraham Lincoln sculpture

In 2009 Ed Hamilton completed work on his sculpture of

, the 16th President of the United States. The sculpture was dedicated as part of a two-year bicentennial celebration of Lincoln's birth to show the influence of Lincoln's early impressions of slavery witnessed in Louisville's slave markets. The sculpture and

bas relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

tableaux The International Conference on Automated Reasoning with Analytic Tableaux and Related Methods (TABLEAUX) is an annual international academic conference that deals with all aspects of automated reasoning with analytic tableaux. Periodically, it joi ...

reflect Lincoln's abhorrence of the institution of

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

and the role of his presidency and the City of Louisville in the conflict of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, the war which preserved the

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

and abolished slavery. In December 2023, the bronze tophat resting next to Lincoln disappeared. The tophat is presumed to have been stolen. Hamilton remarked "They had to be strong and determined to pry bronze from a base, good grief!"

The bas-reliefs and their narrative

The interpretative bas reliefs of the history of slavery created by Ed Hamilton are part of the Lincoln Memorial at Waterfront Park. The narrative panels were unveiled by Hamilton at the same 2009 dedication ceremony as the Lincoln Memorial sculpture. The reliefs, placed side-by-side along a path to the statue, contain text and depict various times of Lincoln's life. The first panel describes Lincoln's childhood, and the second shows how slavery and the Civil War divided Lincoln's own family. The third panel's theme is Lincoln's growing political and social awareness, and the fourth and final relief shows seven slaves shackled together, with text quoting how Lincoln grew to hate slavery after witnessing slaves loaded onto a boat in Louisville. Words from Lincoln are written in the granite of the amphitheater, including "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master."

The sculptor Ed Hamilton

Ed Hamilton was

apprenticed Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

to Louisville sculptor

Barney Bright Jeptha Barnard Bright Jr (July 8, 1927 – July 23, 1997), better known as Barney Bright, born in Shelby County, Kentucky and was a sculptor from Louisville, Kentucky, is best known for his work on the Louisville Clock. Biography Bright was born ...

, well known for his work on the

Louisville Clock The Louisville Clock (often called the Derby Clock) was a high ornamental clock that was formerly located on Fourth Street in Louisville, Kentucky.''The Encyclopedia of Louisville'' By John E. Kleber (University Press of Kentucky) page 540 It w ...

. In May through December 2002 the

Speed Art Museum The Speed Art Museum, originally known as the J.B. Speed Memorial Museum, now colloquially referred to as the Speed by locals, is the oldest and largest art museum in Kentucky. It was established in 1927 in Louisville, Kentucky on Third Street ...

in Louisville mounted an exhibition of Hamilton's sculpture called ''From the Other Side'' and published an illustrated exhibition catalog to accompany the show. Hamilton also designed and created one of the African-American Civil War monuments in Washington, D.C., and a Lincoln statue at

Centre College Centre College is a private liberal arts college in Danville, Kentucky. It is an undergraduate college with an enrollment of approximately 1,400 students. Centre was officially chartered by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1819. The college is ...

Danville, Kentucky Danville is a home rule-class city in Boyle County, Kentucky, United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 17,236 at the 2020 Census. Danville is the principal city of the Danville Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes ...

. Sculptor Hamilton said of the Lincoln sculpture that he wanted to show him as a man of the people:

I didn't want to do another Lincoln like all the other Lincolns...I wanted (it) to be a Lincoln of the people...And so my vision was...I thought wouldn't it be interesting to have him, say a morning time walking to the office...And all of a sudden he came upon this big boulder, and he just took a notion to sit down. And he set his books and his top hat on the boulder, and he started reading one of his books. And all of a sudden, someone caught his attention and with a gesture of saying 'Hey! Come, sit down. Welcome...'

Waterfront Park

The Lincoln Memorial sculpture is located within the Waterfront Park, a city park by the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

. Waterfront Park is part of the Louisville Riverwalk and the Kentucky Lincoln Heritage Trail. Landscaping of the

Louisville Waterfront Park Louisville Waterfront Park is both a non-profit organization and an public park adjacent to the downtown area of Louisville, Kentucky and the Ohio River. Specifically, it is adjacent to Louisville's wharf and Riverfront Plaza/Belvedere, which ...

included planting of trees which Lincoln favored. The dedication of the park was celebrated June 3, 2009, with a public sunset event featuring a 50-piece orchestra performing works by American composer

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...

and Louisville native William Mapother narrating Copland's ''

Lincoln Portrait ''Lincoln Portrait'' (also known as ''A Lincoln Portrait'') is a classical orchestral work written by the American composer Aaron Copland. The work involves a full orchestra, with particular emphasis on the brass section at climactic moments. The ...

''.

References

External links

Kentucky Department of Travel and Tourism page

Interview with Rick Bell
(YouTube), author of book ''Louisville's Waterfront Park: A Riverfront Renaissance''.

KET Kentucky Educational Television (KET) is a state network of PBS member television stations serving the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. It is operated by the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television, an agency of the Kentucky state governm ...