This statue by Anna Hyatt Huntington is one of only a few of Lincoln on horseback. It is not the original piece. The original is located at the entrance of Lincoln’s New Salem State Park near Springfield, IL. There are numerous copies. There are copies at Syracuse University; in Lincoln City, Oregon and at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York. There is even one in Austria – near Salzburg I believe.
I have found small versions, perhaps 3″ – 4″ feet tall at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey and in Bethel, New York.
Huntington is most famous for her equestrian statues. The horse in this piece is quite good and the Lincoln not quite as good.
Why so few Lincoln’s on horseback considering how much of his life travelinng the circuit was spent on a horse? There are two reasons I suspect. The first being the cost. It is costly to pay a sculptor for both a human figure and a horse. Secondly, many scuptors are quite accomplished doing the human figure but many don’t attempt animals.
Perhaps one of the finest Lincoln pieces posing him with a horse is a relatively new work in Washington DC. This work by StudioEIS of Brooklyn, New York is mounted in front of Lincoln’s Cottage retreat north of downtown Washington.