ISBA commissions Lincoln bicentennial bust
The boom in plans for celebration of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial includes a bust commissioned by the Illinois State Bar Association.
Illinois sculptor John McClarey, whose works are located at many statewide sites, has begun work on a large bronze likeness of the 16th president that will stand on a stone pedestal in the Great Hall outside Illinois Supreme Court chambers.
The bust, titled “Prairie Lawyer, Master of Us All,” will show Lincoln as he appeared in his final years as a lawyer before the 1860 election, said Rockford attorney Thomas S. Johnson, chair of the ISBA Bicentennial Committee.
The dedication is planned for Feb. 12, 2009, the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, during a special session of the Supreme Court.
Author and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin will be the principal speaker at the unveiling, and a luncheon by invitation will follow in the Governor’s Mansion.
Also on the state bar association’s Lincoln Bicentennial agenda is a joint reception that will take place Thursday, July 31, 2009, at the Chicago History Museum.
Scheduled during the American Bar Association Annual Meeting in Chicago, the event will be open to participants in meetings of the ABA House of Delegates and the National Conferences of Bar Presidents, Bar Executives and Bar Foundations.
Other plans include joining with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in sponsoring a series of lectures on Lincoln the Lawyer, and statewide distribution of a Lincoln video that is being produced by the University of Illinois public television station.
Financial support for restoration of Lincoln’s Springfield law office is bring considered, along with purchase and distribution to schools and libraries of a four-volume publication about 50 of his most significant cases.