An Abraham Lincoln wax statue proved to be no match for the scorching Washington D.C. heat during last week’s heatwave.
According to Newsweek, the statue, which sits outside northwest Washington D.C.’s Garrison Elementary School, was seen melting as temperatures hit between 90 and 100 degrees in the area.
WSUA9 reporter, John Doran, took to X (formerly on Twitter) on Sunday, June 23, to share images of the Lincoln wax figure melting. The head was noticeably falling off while the knees were breaking off and the chair was sinking. “This heat is relentless,” Doran declared. “A wax sculpture of Abraham Lincoln in northwest DC has melted so much, it’s almost lost its head.”
Newsweek further reports that this isn’t the first time that the wax figure has made headlines over the past year. In Oct. 2023, the figure was lit during an event, which caused it to melt excessively. Both police and fire crews were called to the scene as witnesses grew concerned over the headlines Lincoln.
The 16th President of the United States was assassinated in April 1865. The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, had shot him in the back of the head at D.C.’s Ford’s Theatre. Lincoln was attending the play Our American Cousin at the time.
The Abraham Lincoln Wax Figure Creator Speaks Out About Melting Incident
Meanwhile, the creator of the Abraham Lincoln wax figure, Sandy Williams IV, spoke out about the melting incident.
“While I do often encourage these sculptures to melt, I was not expecting this version of the artwork to melt in this way,” Williams said. “I always joked that when the climate got worse, and we were living in weather hot enough to melt these sculptures, that this work would then become environmental art. I did not expect for that day to be this past weekend.”
Williams pointed out that the Abraham Lincoln wax figure had melted a second time despite efforts to build “safeguards.”
“Something in the universe bigger than me has now melted this sculpture twice,” Williams continued. “And I think it was important that these were unplanned public events vs staged gallery or museum performances.”
The wax figure, which is a six-foot-tall replica of the Lincoln Memorial statue, is complete with wicks. It was commissioned by CulturalDC and funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Public Art Building Communities Grant. The installation is titled 40 ACRES: Camp Barker.