Clark Mills' Lincoln Life Mask

[Dave Taylor]

I'm trying to figure out when Abraham Lincoln sat for his life mask with sculptor Clark Mills. It's clear the mask was made in February of 1865. Most sources give the date of creation as February 11 and associate this date with Theodore Augustus Mills, Clark's eldest son. However, in June of 1865, Clark's second son, Theophilus Fisk Mills, applied for a patent for a bust of Lincoln based on the life mask. In that document, Fisk gives the date the life mask was created as February 14, exactly two months before Lincoln's assassination.

I don't have the largest library when it comes to the living Lincoln. Does anyone have a good source for the claim that Lincoln sat for the mask on February 11 rather than the 14th?

[Gene C]

I checked "Lincoln Day By Day" by Earl S Miers in the Internet Archive.
No mention of Lincoln sitting for his life mask on any of those days.

https://archive.org/details/lincolndayby...2/mode/2up

[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.

---

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.

[Steve]

(01-19-2026 01:04 PM)STS Lincolnite Wrote:  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"

It reads

"in the month of Feb. 1865"

So no specific date given.

[STS Lincolnite]

(01-19-2026 01:42 PM)Steve Wrote:  It reads

"in the month of Feb. 1865"

So no specific date given.

Thanks Steve. That's what I get for trying to read this on my phone (and with aging eyes) instead of waiting to get to a computer.

[Dave Taylor]

Here's my attempt at a full transcription of Fisk Mills' patent:

Quote:Fisk Mills, of Washington, District of Columbia
Letters Patent No. 2082 - Dated June 6, 1865
Design for a Bust of Abrm. Lincoln

The schedule referred to in these letters Patent and making part of the same.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Fisk Mills, of the City of Washington, and District of Columbia, have originated and produced a new bust of the late President Abraham Lincoln, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description reference being [had?] to the accompanying photographs making part of this specification.

This Bust is modeled from a cast taken from the living face in the month of Feb. 1865, by Clark Mill’s process and bears the following inscription: Modeled from a cast taken from the living face Feb. 14th 1865, and differs from all other likenesses in being a perfect facsimile of the face, physiognomically and phrenologically speaking. The callipers being applicable to the cast for minute exactness of features and organs. Other busts being modeled by looking at the person, lose this exactness, as the callipers are not minutely applicable to the living face, and the fidelity wholly entrusted to the accuracy of the [agent?].

What I claim as my production and desire to secure by Letters Patent is the design for the head and neck of the bust herein set forth.

Fisk Mills

Witnesses
C. H. Fowler
T. J. Chamberlain

I still interpret Fisk's words to say that the cast was made on February 14, but I understand where you're coming from Scott.

[Dave Taylor]

Scott recommended I search out some newspaper records to see if that might help with this mystery. I'm still in the process of doing so, but I have found a few interesting articles. Here's an article from 1970 when a cast of Clark Mill's life cast was donated to the Library of Congress:



As the article states, this early cast of the Mills' mask came with a letter from Theodore Augustus Mills dated May 26, 1886, which stated, "The cast of President Lincoln which I have today conveyed to Mr. John Hay, was taken by my father the late Clark Mills from the head of the President thirty days before his death, and so far as I know no copy has been made from it except the one made by me last week." The article then notes that an additional letter was provided by Theodore Mills' younger brother, "T[heophilus] F[isk] Mill,s" dated June 15, 1866 [likely meant 1886]. While the article doesn't quote the exact words of Fisk's letter, it relates that "He [Fisk] volunteered a statement that he had assisted his father in making the original cast 60 days before President Lincoln's assassination." This sixty-day timeline puts the mask's creation on February 14, the same day Fisk claims on his patent application in June of 1865.

While Theodore Augustus Mills is often given credit for helping his father make the mask (and seemingly claimed as much in later years), it seems more likely to me that Theophilus Fisk Mills was the actual assistant. The above article makes it clear that Theodore was off about when the cast was made. In the quoted portion of Theodore's letter that we are given, he does not then make the claim that he was part of the process. Fisk, however, did claim to have taken part in its creation in his 1886 letter.

In addition, here's an article from the Buffalo Weekly Express from March 21, 1865, about a visit to a sculptor's studio within the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. The writer visits Clark Mills' studio inside the building and remarks upon the recent works of his son, T. F. Mills:



At the end, the reporter notes that he was "struck with the fidelity of a bust of President Lincoln, from the chisel of the younger Mills. It is exquisitely perfect as a work of art." This is no doubt a bust based on the Lincoln life mask, and likely the same one included in Fisk's patent application in June of 1865. It seems likely to me that Fisk was allowed to utilize the mask to create his bust since he had a hand in creating it. This article also places Fisk Mills in D.C. at the time.

Clark Mills was also known to be in D.C. at the time, with articles noting that he was working on a sculpture of Lincoln and his Cabinet based on the Emancipation Proclamation, as well as another sculpture of General Benjamin Butler.

In March of 1865, a story came out that accused Clark Mills of having Confederate sympathies:



Mills subsequently denied the claim and called the so-called letter a forgery. Yet some may have believed that he was a bit disloyal. According to a few newspapers, after John Wilkes Booth was killed and returned to Washington, Clark Mills asked Secretary of War Stanton for permission to make a death mask of the assassin, with the following result:



Lloyd Ostendorf's name comes up a bit in articles about these masks and he relates that the mask was made on February 11 and the first positive casting occurred on February 12, Lincoln's birthday. He cites this information as coming from Theodore Mills, but I have yet to find the original source he is basing this on.



The names of Theodore A. Mills and Theophilus F. Mills are so similar that this may also be causing issues in identification.

I'm still more liable to trust the earliest document we have, which is Fisk's 1865 patent claiming the mask was created on February 14, but the confusing nature of Theodore Mills' claims makes this a hard one to rectify.