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Young Lincoln

a close of the face of the young Abraham Lincoln sculpture

About the Sculpture

Standing 7 feet tall, the piece depicts a young Abraham Lincoln holding tools that were used to join rails on the transcontinental railroad. It was unveiled May 5, 2000 in front of the City County Building.

Louis Slobodkin originally cast this after winning second place in a contest for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. The theme of the Fair was unity, and Abraham Lincoln was a perfect example of a president who unified a fractured nation. It was to be displayed at an interior court but was destroyed by a man named Ed Flynn the day before the opening of the Fair. The statue was then reconstructed, as well as a bronze casting that found a permanent home in the Interior Department building in Washington D.C.

Years later, Louis’ son Lawrence was helping his own son move across country, and made a stop in Lincoln to talk to a biologist studying freshwater jellyfish, Professor Pardee, as Lawrence was also studying the same jellyfish. After visiting the Sheldon Museum of Art and finding work done by a few of his father’s friends, he decided to donate the plaster cast of Young Lincoln to the museum in 1996. It was later approved to do a bronze casting as part of the Pennies for Lincoln project. In order for the sculpture to be made, $17,500 was raised, with the Sheldon contributing the rest of the total cost of $40,000. Lincoln’s own bronze casting was completed by Omaha artist Les Bruning.

full image of the young Abraham Lincoln sculpture, standing on a pedestal outside the city/county building

Rotating around the sculpture of Young Lincoln outside the City-County Building.

A statue of a young Abraham Lincoln as a rail joiner

The backside of the Young Lincoln sculpture looking towards the Capital building

About the Artist

Louis Slobodkin

Slobodkin was born in Albany, NY on February 19, 1903. He began modeling clay at a young age. He was enrolled at the Beaux Arts Institute of Design at the age of 15. While he was completing his studies he worked as an elevator operator at night. When Slobodkin was just starting his career, he worked in various sculpture studios as an assistant, including Lee Lawrie’s while he worked on the sculpture ornaments for Lincoln’s state Capitol building.

After the Young Lincoln debacle at the 1939 Worlds Fair, he went on to head the sculpture division of the New York City Art Project. In the last half of his life, he turned to illustrating and writing children’s books, before passing away in Bay Harbor Islands, Miami Beach in 1975.

Leslie Bruning

Bruning was born in Syracuse, KS though he was raised in Nebraska. He studied at Nebraska Wesleyan University, earning a BA degree in 1970. He also studied at Graz Center in Austria and earned an MFA degree from Syracuse University in 1972. He is a founder and partner in the Hot Shops Art Center as well as owning Bruning Sculpture.

Additional Information

Length: 2 ft.

Width: 2 ft.

Height: 7 ft.