Lincoln with Dumb Hat and Nude Boy

Bennington, Vermont

There are several contenders for the title of Least-Flattering Lincoln Statue, but this might be the winner. It features a nine-foot-tall, green-with-age Abe with his stovepipe hat pulled down over his eyebrows, standing rigid as a robot. In front of him kneels a topless woman (Faith) and stands a nude boy (Hope) with Abe's bony hand grasping the kid's head like a cantaloupe.

Vermont sculptor Clyde du Vernet Hunt displayed this statue outside the Illinois Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair (He came from a wealthy and well-connected family). The sculpture disappeared after the Fair until it was donated to the museum in 1949, which put it on display in front of the building (Hunt had died in 1941). In the winter, ever since, snow has piled comically atop Abe's hat.

In October 2021, the Lincoln statue was vandalized by unknown assailants using red spray paint and marking the number "38" on his chest. While Lincoln was the 16th President (Gerald Ford was 38th), 38 refers to the number of Sioux fighters sentenced to execution by a military commission for murder or rape in late 1862. Lincoln commuted the sentences of 264 of the Sioux, and granted one of the condemned a reprieve, but the other 38 were hanged.