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A full-size (27-inch) version at the Owen County Historical and Genealogical Society in Spencer, Indiana.
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1938: "LINCOLN AS AN INDIANA BOY"
Viquesney's earliest version of
''Lincoln as an Indiana Boy'', 1938.
''Lincoln as an Indiana Boy'', 1938.
After his great successes with "The Spirit of the American Doughboy" and the "Imp-O-Luck" in the 1920s, Viquesney continued his career in the years between the World Wars by creating busts and sculptures of people he respected or admired, among them President Abraham Lincoln. In 1938 he came out with the piece at left, titled "Lincoln as an Indiana Boy", and immediately tried to sell it to the Lincoln Life Insurance Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana. But the company already had its own seated Lincoln statue commissioned to Paul Manship in 1928, and politely refused Viquesney's offer, stating that if any Lincoln statues were to be marketed by them, they would "naturally" be copies of Manship's creation. Nevertheless, Viquesney's piece won a 2nd place blue ribbon at the 1939 Indiana State Fair. Slight changes to the features and title on the miniatures (see photo below, right) were made the same year.
A 27-inch plaster version of Viquesney's Lincoln sculpture was installed on the campus of what was then Indiana State Teachers' College (now Indiana State University). According to an Indianapolis Sunday Star article of February 11, 1940, it was supposed to be placed in what was then the university's new Union Building on March 18, 1940. Today the statue is on display on campus inside Norman Hall, on the 2nd floor.
Another full-size 27-inch plaster copy is on display at Spencer, Indiana's Owen County Heritage and Culture Center, and may be the one that appears in an April, 1947 Viquesney estate sale notice, which lists a "Lincoln as an Indiana Boy" statue and pedestal. There is a third copy in the collection of the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis.
A 27-inch plaster version of Viquesney's Lincoln sculpture was installed on the campus of what was then Indiana State Teachers' College (now Indiana State University). According to an Indianapolis Sunday Star article of February 11, 1940, it was supposed to be placed in what was then the university's new Union Building on March 18, 1940. Today the statue is on display on campus inside Norman Hall, on the 2nd floor.
Another full-size 27-inch plaster copy is on display at Spencer, Indiana's Owen County Heritage and Culture Center, and may be the one that appears in an April, 1947 Viquesney estate sale notice, which lists a "Lincoln as an Indiana Boy" statue and pedestal. There is a third copy in the collection of the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis.
Update February 17, 2020: Thanks to site visitor Dave Wiegers of Gurnee, Illinois, who provided the information on the current location of the ISU statue location.
 Above, left: Viquesney's 27-inch statue of Abraham Lincoln atop a 3-foot black base.
In 1939, Viquesney made slight changes to his Lincoln statue, making the face more pensive, and shifting the position of the legs a little more to the viewer's left. He also changed the inscription on some of the statues to "I will get ready and maybe someday my chance will come". There were at least three sizes and variations of this piece, as well as a bookend version sold in pairs. Interestingly, there is an almost exact cast bronze copy of the piece by Guido Rebechini that is on display in the Des Plaines, Illinois, Public Library. A reference to it appears in a copy of a 1963 typewritten letter to Rebechini's son, where it is dismissed with an added handwritten notation, "This is the statue by E. M. Viquesney".
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 Plaster miniature of ''Lincoln as an Indiana Boy'', 1939. About six inches tall, it also came as a set of bookends.  Photo: Harlan Ogle, Monticello, Kentucky. The piece above is called "Abe Lincoln, Lawyer", about eight inches tall, 1940.
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