In 1914, Daniel Chester French was selected by the Lincoln Memorial Commission to create a statue appropriate for the memorial. Because the statue had to be approved by the Commission of Fine Arts, French, who was its chairman, had to resign. A detailed 2nd model was approved by the commission in 1915, and by late 1916, a 7 ft. tall 3rd model was completed. An even larger 4th model was brought to the memorial for scale comparison in 1917.
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Henry Bacon, the memorial's architect, felt this 4th model was too small at 10 feet high. Through comparative photo enlargements of the model, it was determined that a 19 foot high sculpture was needed. The cutting of the Georgia White marble began in 1918, and in late 1919 the carving was finished. In the following months, the statue's 28 pieces were assembled for the first time in the memorial. French fine tuned the finishing touches during this time.
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