The renovated Lincoln Hall will include a new memorial statue to Abraham Lincoln when it reopens in 2012. In light of coincidence, however, the addition should feel right at home.
Earlier this summer, the family of the deceased Albert Triebel Jr. (BS ’37, accountancy) donated his “Seated Lincoln” statue to Lincoln Hall for display when the renovation is complete. The bronze sculpture (roughly 26¼ inches long, 14½ inches wide, and 21 inches high) features a weary-looking Lincoln sitting on a bench, his hat off to one side.
The statue is modeled after Gutzon Borglum’s original “Seated Lincoln” sculpture on display in front of the Essex County Courthouse in New Jersey. The larger original was dedicated by then-President Theodore Roosevelt in 1911, the same year that Lincoln Hall opened.
Gutzon Borglum’s sculpture of Lincoln in the U.S. Capitol Building’s main rotunda inspired the University of Illinois to mount a bronze bust of the 16th U.S. president in Lincoln Hall’s foyer in the late 1920s. Borglum’s most famous sculpture is Mount Rushmore (which was built after Lincoln Hall).
