Abraham Lincoln Statue hotels in Manchester, United Kingdom

Manchester's reputation as a world centre for the textile industry was forged in toil, sweat and a fair dollop of elbow grease during the Industrial Revolution! Much of the city's interest for visitors today lies in its splendid industrial heritage. There is, however, much more to modern Manchester than the Manchester Ship Canal and the restored shells of industrial-age mills and factories. Based in a suitable Manchester hotel, guesthouse or B&B you'll have a thoroughly modern city to explore, full of art galleries, museums and music venues. One of its attractions, especially with American tourists, is the statues of Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln Square, in the centre of the city.

Manchester Hotels for the Abraham Lincoln Statue

The Abraham Lincoln statue in Manchester came here by a circuitous and somewhat unusual route. It was made by the sculptor George Gray Barnard to mark a century of unbroken peace between Britain and the USA since 1814. Intended to stand outside Westminster, it was deemed to be not statesmanlike enough and another was commissioned to replace it. The original one wasn't wasted, however, as it ended up in Manchester, and was unveiled in 1919. Here, it celebrated specifically the years of the cotton famine, when Lincoln regarded England as being on the side of the Union. It paid homage to the suffering mill workers of that time too.

See the Abraham Lincoln Statue from Manchester Hotels

The original purpose of the gift was largely forgotten, with the statue in Manchester now bearing the legend, 'Lancashire friendship to the cause for which he lived and died.' The workers in the Lancashire cotton mills were the main victims of the famine on this side of the Atlantic, so this was an expression of fraternal worker sympathy which all of Manchester was happy to get behind. The statue was moved to its present location in 1986, from its former site in Platt Fields. A new pedestal was made for it and included some extracts from a letter Lincoln wrote to the Lancashire workers, recognising how they had suffered since slavery was abolished across the USA. It's a moving testament to the link across the Atlantic, and a must-see from your Manchester hotel.