The Cornell University library has announced that a bust of Abraham Lincoln will be restored to a place of prominent display several months after news reports noted it had been removed.
University librarian Elaine Westbrooks told the Washington Examiner she had directed the statue to be cleaned before being restored to the location in the library it occupied when the building opened over a century ago.
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“Over the summer, I directed the cleaning and return to public exhibition of a bust of Abraham Lincoln, a valuable item in the Cornell Library’s vast permanent collection,” Westbrooks said. “The bust went on display in Uris Library when it opened in 1891. The bust will soon return to its original room in Uris in the heart of our Ithaca campus.”
The bust had been displayed along with a copy of the Gettysburg Address to commemorate the famous oration’s 150th anniversary in 2013. The display was removed from its place in the university library’s Rare and Manuscript Collections section in August 2021.
Westbrooks said that the bust was then placed in storage, but that “subsequent questions about this curatorial decision inspired thoughtful conversation among library staff” and led the library to explore options to restore it to a place of public display.
“I was moved by the outpouring of interest in this historic artifact and made plans to return the bust to public view,” Westbrooks said, adding, “Cornell proudly possesses an enviable Lincoln collection, including one of the five known copies of the Gettysburg Address in Lincoln’s handwriting, and one of 14 manuscript copies of the 13th Amendment with the original signatures of Lincoln and members of Congress who voted for it.”
The news of the library’s decision to once again display the bust in public was met with elation from Cornell biology professor Randy Wayne, who had previously said that the university had removed it because “someone complained.”
Wayne told the higher education news website The College Fix that he was “thankful” the bust would once again be available for public viewing.
“Abraham Lincoln is one of the greatest presidents, one of the greatest freedom fighters, and one of the greatest writers of the English language of all time,” Wayne told the outlet. “He wasn’t perfect, but I wish I were one-millionth of the man he was.”
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The biology professor also said that pressure from alumni and donors likely contributed to the decision to reinstate the statue to a place of prominence.
“The alumni and donors have a deep love for Cornell and have sincere gratitude for the education that they got here. They did not want cancel culture to ruin it for their grandkids,” he told the website.
