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Research dossier · Arts & Letters

The Face of Lincoln

1955 short film

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ7733033 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Face of Lincoln is a 1955 short documentary film in which sculptor Robert Merrell Gage models the features of Abraham Lincoln while narrating the story of Lincoln's life. It won an Oscar at the 28th Academy Awards in 1956 for Best Short Subject (Two-Reel) and was also nominated for Documentary Short Subject. The film was directed by Edward Freed and produced by USC School of Cinematic Arts instructor Wilbur T. Blume.

References

External links

The Face of Lincoln at IMDb

Wilber T. Blume

Watch The Face of Lincoln on C-SPAN Video Library

The short film The Face of Lincoln is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.

Editorial summary

“The Face of Lincoln” enters the record as 1955 short film. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Face, Lincoln and short can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1955, 1956—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1955-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Face, Lincoln and short.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“The Face of Lincoln” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Face, Lincoln and short provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7733033. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1955 and 1956.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Face of Lincoln”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Face of Lincoln primary sources, The Face of Lincoln archive and Face research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Face of Lincoln”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Face of Lincoln” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.