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Community Corner

UPDATE: Lincoln Portrait Finds Home At Batavia Library

A 19th-century Abraham Lincoln portrait now hangs above the library's fireplace.

A painting featuring the 16th U.S. President has a new home in Batavia.

An Abraham Lincoln portrait was unveiled at the Batavia Public Library on Tuesday. The portrait hangs in the Library Leaders Reading Room, and faces west towards Route 31.

The portrait was painted by Ellen Sibley Fuller of West Springfield, MA, in 1876.  It is thought that Lincoln was one of Fuller's heroes, according to Library Director George Scheetz.

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“What I’m really enthralled about is the location of this painting as it relates to the street out front, which all of you know at one time was the Lincoln Highway,” Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke said. “This is really a historical spot in Batavia.”

Schielke indicated that the Lincoln Highway was also the road that President Dwight D. Eisenhower traveled as an army captain on July 21, 1919 from Chicago Heights to DeKalb. John F. Kennedy also gave a speech across the street of the current library on October 25, 1960 in his run for president.

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Library Board President Douglas Sullivan thinks the Lincoln painting and the display of local artists' work will further emphasize the library as a place where art can thrive.

“One of the things that I’ve tried to do since I came on to the board is really make the library a focal point for our community in terms of arts and our ability to support local artists,” Sullivan said.

The portrait is a gift from the estate of Virginia M. Douglas, who was a Batavia resident from 1957 to 1992 and Fuller’s granddaughter. The artist’s great-granddaughters, Jan Takle of Pasadena, California, and Trish Fechner of Carrollton, Texas, contacted Scheetz and offered the portrait as a gift to the library, according to a press release.

“We looked at this carefully before it was restored and were convinced that the likeness was certainly good enough, near enough to what we knew (Lincoln) looked like,” said Virginia Babcock, Library Board vice president.

The painting was taken to the Chicago Conservation for treatment.

“They thoroughly cleaned it, put a new protective cover over the top and put it in a new frame,” Scheetz said.

The conservation cost of the painting was $2,710. The new frame cost $540.00 and was funded through a library grant, according to a press release.

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