AVARD FAIRBANKS, LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE PLAQUES, 1958

bronze bas reliefs, 4' x 6' each approx.

Located: East wall, outside Old Main, Knox College, 2 E. South St., Galesburg, Ill.

Other works: "Lincoln," New Salem State Historic Site, Petersburg, Ill.; "Pioneer Mothers' Memorial," Vancouver, B. C.; "Pioneer Family," Bismarck, N. D. and many more. World expositions since 1915 have honored his work.

The two large cast bronze plaques, on either side of the east entrance to Knox College's Old Main commemorate the fifth debate between Abraham Lincoln and Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas. Though Lincoln was the local crowd favorite he lost the Senate seat to Douglas, only to be elected President two years later. Old Main, a National Historic Monument, is the only structure standing where one of the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates took place.

Formal and dignified, the portraits in clay are not a flat frontal view of the head but

rather a 3/4 view of a sculpted face rising from a flat background. Sunlight and shadow on the forms creates a realistic sense of depth.

On October 7,1958, when these Avard Fairbanks plaques were to be dedicated, they were not yet ready. Painted plaster casts of them were used (now displayed in the Old Knox County Courthouse, Knoxville, Ill.). The day was wet with heavy rains. An archival letter to Avard Fairbanks informs that the plaster casts "survived the rain of that weekend amazingly well." They did and they are in Knoxville to see.