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CONTACT:

Dru Anne Neil

Director of Marketing and Communications

Gettysburg Foundation

(717) 338-1243, ext. 2102

 

         The Gettysburg Foundation will unveil a life-sized bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln on Nov. 19 – the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. The sculpture, first announced last spring, will be situated at the front of the Museum and Visitor Center at Gettysburg National Military Park and is a gift from philanthropist Robert H. Smith, whose Robert H. Smith Family Foundation funds the David Bruce Smith Education Initiative, focusing on Lincoln programming.

 

The sculpture is the work of Brooklym-based StudioEIS and Ivan Schwartz, the studio’s founder and director; and an environment for the sculpture is being created by landscape architect Andrew Balderson of Donovan, Feola, Balderson & Associates. Landscaping work will begin later this month.

 

“The Lincoln sculpture will be a popular addition to our new Museum and Visitor Center,” said Foundation Chair of the Board Robert A. Kinsley. “It reinforces for our visitors the significance of this great president and the lasting legacy at Gettysburg. We are grateful to Robert H. Smith for making possible this beautiful addition to our museum.”

 

The Foundation’s Lincoln sculpture is the latest in a series of presidential statues supported by Smith and created by StudioEIS. Their partnership has made possible statues of Dolly and James Madison at Montpelier, Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, George and Martha Washington at Mount Vernon and Abraham Lincoln at Lincoln’s Cottage. Gettysburg’s sculpture completes the series. StudioEIS also created life-sized bronze sculptures of the signers of the U.S. Constitution for the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, among many other public projects.

 

The sculpture’s unveiling and associated programs will kick-off the Foundation’s weekend-long commemoration of the 146^th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, culminating with the Seventh Annual Remembrance Illumination on Saturday, Nov. 21, when a luminary candle will be placed on the grave of each Civil War soldier in the Soldiers’ National Cemetery. A complete schedule of events can be found at www.gettysburgfoundation.org.