Clark Mills' Lincoln Life Mask

[STS Lincolnite]

I have always used the February 11 date for when Lincoln SAT for the making of the plaster cast (per TA Mills). The date of the 14th COULD be the date a final mask was made from the plaster cast. I do remember reading that the plaster cast came off in pieces. If I remember that correctly, it would have to have been then put back together and then the mold used to make the actual sculpted mask (maybe took a day or two by the time the plaster mask dried adequately, etc.). So I guess both those dates could be true, just depending on how terms were defined.

I am at work but will check my files when I get home. I will also reach out to Dave Wiegers to see if he has anything more specific in his files on Lincoln sculptures.

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Dave,

I just read the document you attached and I think it reads similar to what I described above.

The first sentence of the paragraph reads in part "from a cast taken from the living face on the (tenth or eleventh? - hard to tell on scan) of Feb.1865"

The document is a little hard to read due to artifact but it looks to me like the February 14th date is associated not to the date the cast was made, but to the date the sculpture was modeled. The second part of the (run on) sentence says something I can't read then " inscription (something that looks likes modeled) from a cast from the living face Feb. 14 1865, and..." The sentence construction is weird, but I think the Feb 14th date is related to the modeling (presumably of the sculpture) not the casting of his face.

Now to figure out if that word is tenth or eleventh of Feb in the first sentence.

As I said in the earlier post, I will check what I have in files when I get home tonight.