The Youth Voices Ensemble from the West Claremont Center for Music and the Arts sings "America the Beautiful" before a crowd of about 700 following the unveiling of a bronze cast of Augustus Saint-Gaudens' "Standing Lincoln" at the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, N.H., on June 26, 2016. The original sculpture was the first Saint-Gaudens created after moving to Cornish in 1885. (Valley News - Geoff Hansen) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.
The Youth Voices Ensemble from the West Claremont Center for Music and the Arts sings "America the Beautiful" before a crowd of about 700 following the unveiling of a bronze cast of Augustus Saint-Gaudens' "Standing Lincoln" at the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, N.H., on June 26, 2016. The original sculpture was the first Saint-Gaudens created after moving to Cornish in 1885. (Valley News - Geoff Hansen) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. Credit: Valley News — Geoff Hansen

Cornish — To many people, Abraham Lincoln finally came home on Sunday.

He didn’t return to the Kentucky homestead where he was born or the house he kept in Illinois. Instead, Lincoln returned to Cornish.

More than 700 people watched with anticipation as two National Park Service employees unveiled Abraham Lincoln: The Man at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site. With a loud cheer, they celebrated the famous statue’s return to the town where Augustus Saint-Gaudens finished the statue nearly 130 years ago.

Standing more than 12 feet over the crowd atop a base of New Hampshire granite, Lincoln stands tall with his head bowed. His left hand grasps the lapel of his coat and his right hand makes a clenched fist behind his back.

“At that moment, he is not a man of action but a man of introspection, deep in thought about the burdens and responsibilities of his office,” said Thayer Tolles, the Marica F. Vilcek Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The oversized chair behind Lincoln isn’t a mistake, Tolles told the crowd, but a representation of the state and responsibilities of the presidency.

“It’s hard, hard work, as an artist would tell you, to produce a portrait that’s both an accurate likeness and a projection of personality,” Tolles said. “With his Standing Lincoln, Saint-Gaudens succeeded splendidly.”

Saint-Gaudens only saw Lincoln three times during his lifetime. The first came as Lincoln passed through New York City on his way to the 1861 inauguration. Saint-Gaudens saw him again when his body lay in state after the assassination. He went through the viewing line twice.

But Saint-Gaudens felt capable when the City of Chicago commissioned him to create a bronze statue of the 16th president. With the help of a Windsor man, Langdon Morse, posing as Lincoln, the statue was finished in 1887.

About 10,000 people came to watch the first unveiling in Lincoln Park, Tolles said. Unlike Sunday, that ceremony was marred by rain.

“We also have no horses that will be spooked by the 38-gun salute that took place mid-ceremony,” Tolles said. “Two horses stampeded wildly through the crowd.”

Since then, reproductions have been cast for display in Mexico City, Los Angeles, London and Cambridge, Mass. The Cornish statue is the sixth version, and was commissioned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service and 50th anniversary of Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site.

The bronze was cast in Arizona from 21 plaster casts kept at Saint-Gaudens. Its pieces were then welded together at the Gettysburg National Military Site in Pennsylvania, before being trucked to the Granite State.

Imagery of Lincoln was often used to his advantage in the days before active campaigning was the norm, said Harold Holzer, a Lincoln historian and author of Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion.

Although the statue was made after Lincoln’s death, he said, the soon-to-be president was eager to stand for artists as a way to further his image.

In 1860, Lincoln visited famous photographer Mathew Brady and posed for a likeness. During the session, Brady asked Lincoln to pull up his collar to shorten his neck, and he obliged.

“The result made Lincoln look like a statesman,” Holzer said.

After his well-known Cooper Union Speech, Lincoln found himself in high demand, sometimes visiting with sculptor Leonard Volk.

During one of those trips, Volk and Lincoln sat to make a life mark, an arduous process that involved putting tubes in Lincoln’s nose so he could breath while his face, including his eyes, was covered in plaster. Volk also had trouble removing the mask.

“Lincoln had to take his strong hands and tug and pull at the mask and, in the process, it pulled out some hair in his temple,” Holzer said.

But Lincoln returned to Volk again for a bust, and allowed the artist to cast his hands. It was Volk’s work that Saint-Gaudens later used in his own sculptures.

“No politician ever made himself so available or benefited so handsomely from images that flooded the country,” Holzer said.

The Lincoln statue isn’t just another image, Gov. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., said on Sunday at the event. It’s also a testament to the president’s importance in our national history.

“It helps ensure that here in New Hampshire, there will be a place to remember his leadership and legacy in such a visual and physical way,” she said.

Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.

Correction

Harold Holzer is the author of Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion. An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect first name.