Fred Smith's Lincoln-Todd Monument
Phillips, Wisconsin
Grassroots artist Fred Smith filled the property around his tavern and house with blocky, broad-shouldered cement people in the 1950s, now preserved as Wisconsin Concrete Park. Most of his art is original, but apparently he really liked a sculpture of President and Mrs. Lincoln in Racine, Wisconsin. So he built his own version in his yard, out by the highway. "Second Monument of its Kind in the U.S.A.," reads Fred's sign, although he made it uniquely his own.
The heads of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln appear to have been separated from their bodies and attached to samurai, or robots, or samurai robots, and encrusted with shards of glass. Abe's hair resembles a skullcap, and his lower torso seems to have been absorbed into his seat. Mary Todd Lincoln looks nothing like Mary Todd Lincoln. Both figures, however, have built-in holes in their cement fists, probably for holding American flags. In Fred Smith's heyday, on July 4th, Abe and Mary must have been an inspiring sight.