PLEASE NOTE: This exhibit is CLOSED.  FOR REFERENCE ONLY.

Delaware artist Frank Schoonover was one of the premier illustrators of his time. With colorful brushstrokes and bold imagery, Schoonover created illustrations for books by authors such as Edgar Rice Burroughs and Zane Grey. His artwork also accompanied articles in magazines like Scribner’s. In 1928, Schoonover illustrated a biography of Abraham Lincoln written by Lucy Foster Madison. He created a series of paintings depicting scenes from Lincoln’s life that includes vignettes of his early career, his debates with Stephen Douglas in the 1858 Illinois Senate race, and culminates in his role as president. In preparation, Schoonover created many studies of Lincoln to better understand his character. This attention to personality is captured in the images.
The Wilmington Savings Fund Society acquired a group of Schoonover’s Lincoln paintings in 1961. The bank’s collection also includes earlier Lincoln images Schoonover created for a story titled “The Toy Shop” in Harper’s Monthly magazine in 1907.

To celebrate the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth,
the Lincoln paintings will be on exhibit
from February 27 through April 25, 2009
at the Delaware History Museum.