Happy Birthday, Mr. Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln statue at Abraham Lincoln High School, circa 1939, V1974.16.812; Edna Huntington papers and photographs, ARC.044; Brooklyn Historical Society

Today marks the 205^th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.  When I think of Honest Abe and Brooklyn, I think of the Lincoln statue which currently resides in Prospect Park’s Concert Grove, near the newly renovated LeFrak Center ice skating rink.  Of course I should have realized that the Prospect Park Lincoln statue was already the subject of a Photo of the Week! So I scoured the BHS photography database to find another connection between the borough and the famed emancipator.

I discovered that there are in fact two statues of the 16^th President in Brooklyn. The other statue is located (appropriately enough) at Abraham Lincoln High School in Coney Island.  According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the statue had “graced the Flatbush porch [of late New York Supreme Court Justice William Donaldson Dickey] for 15 years” before being donated by his daughter to the school in 1932. This photograph was taken around 1939 by Miss Edna Huntington, a former BHS Librarian. Abraham Lincoln High School itself has an illustrious history, graduating a slew of famous authors, athletes, entertainers, politicians and scientists over the past 85 years.

Interested in seeing more photos from BHS’s collection? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images. Interested in seeing even more historic Brooklyn images? Visit our new website here.  To search BHS’s entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections visit BHS’s Othmer Library Wednesday – Saturday, 1:00-5:00 p.m.