Go through almost any small town in America, and you will see at least one statue. It may be of some important local important person. Or it may be of someone of national structure. Statues in large cities run into the hundreds. New York City has over 800.
Across all the nation’s cities and towns, the person most honored by statues is Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. He is probably the most widely regarded man to have held the office. His place is etched in history because of his role in the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed America’s slaves.
There are 191 monuments or statues of Lincoln. He is trailed by George Washington, of whom 171 have been erected. While Washington may not match Lincoln in the mind of historians, as the leading general of the Revolutionary War and first President, his monument total is no surprise.
The most famous Lincoln statue is the seated figure of the president at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. It sits at one end of the Lincoln Reflecting Pool opposite the World War II Memorial. Finished in 1922, it is the District of Columbia’s most visited monument and gets about eight million visitors per year. (Here’s a list of the 30 most popular national monuments in America.)