Lincoln’s Heads

Since 1909, the centennial of his birth, the embossed profile of Abraham Lincoln—perhaps the most revered president—has been stamped onto one side of every penny made in the U.S. One day, Providence artist Sandor Bodo ’75 picked what he now calls “Penny #00” out of a jar of loose change. It was so battered that “when I put it under a loupe, I felt that I was looking at Abraham Lincoln with bullet holes,” he says. So was born “Obscuring Lincoln: Photographs from the Penny Project,” on display at the Watson Institute through the end of 2024. Bodo argues that Lincoln calls to mind “a very turbulent and divided time in America that included the Civil War, slavery, and his assassination.” The distressed copper images of him, each different, “invite one to reflect on democracy and how it is a messy system, continually challenged as the world spins forward. Perhaps a distressed penny describes American democracy better than a crisp, freshly stamped one from the U.S. Mint.” The exhibit is in the third floor atrium of the Political Science Building, 111 Thayer.