In the spirit of William Least Heat Moon's iconic Blue Highways, W. Springfield (VA) High School history teacher James A. Percoco took to the roads for four summers to learn the backstories of some 200 statues erected over the years to Abraham Lincoln. In Summers With Lincoln -- Looking for the Man in the Monuments, he focuses his efforts largely on seven notable statues, beginning and ending his search in Washington.
Thomas Ball's Emancipation Group was erected east of the Capitol in 1876 with private funds from African Americans and dedicated to abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Percoco brought along his students, and together they explored "the impact of this Freedman's Monument showing Lincoln and a kneeling freed bondsperson. What does the statue say about race and freedom to today's Americans? What did Ball -- and his sponsors -- want it to say?"
Other statues included in Percoco's survey are Augustus Saint-Gaudens's 1887 Standing Lincoln in Chicago, Paul Manship's 1932 Lincoln the Hoosier Youth in Fort Wayne, IN; and Borglum's Seated Lincoln in Newark, N.J. The author chronicles the history of each monument, "spotlighting its artistic, social, political and cultural origins." It's little wonder that his publisher describes this innovative scholar as an award-winning history teacher.
