Lincoln statue restoration gets underway

Abraham Lincoln is getting some professional attention this week on Bascom Hill, and by Saturday he’ll feel — or look — like a new man.

His rejuvenation will come courtesy of Cameron Wilson, a nationally known art conservator based in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was asked by the university to clean up the famed Lincoln bronze in front of Bascom Hall. Abe has been sitting there, much-photographed but never cleaned, for 90 years.

That means he’s been exposed to the corrosive effects of acid rain, and he does look the worse for wear. Abe sports a streaky green-and-black look that detracts from his overall presence.

The corrosive agents covering Abe already have obscured the eagle on the back of his chair. And they would have gradually, sans Wilson, effaced his face, or at least some of his features.

Wilson first is cleaning off the statue with detergent, mineral spirits and pressurized water. Then he’s applying chemicals to reduce the streakiness, followed by two coats of hot wax with a corrosion inhibitor, to be reapplied each year.

“It will be wonderful to watch the transformation of this beautiful statue back to the complete artistic statement intended by the sculptor, Adolph Weinman,” says Wilson. “Then you will be able to read the form, instead of seeing the streaks.”

Wilson and his wife, Jackie, restore statuary and other forms of art around the country. They just finished two statues in City Hall Park in New York City and are working on a massive project cleaning and restoring a 13-ton glass mural in Rockefeller Center.

Two years ago, they restored the outdoor sculpture by Zorach called “Mother and Child,” outside the Elvehjem Museum at UW–Madison. While Cameron is restoring the Lincoln statue this week, Jackie is working on some sculpture in the Elvehjem collection.

Cameron will give an informal on-site talk for the public on the Lincoln cleaning at noon Thursday, Sept. 23.