Ernest C. Bairstow

Ernest C. Bairstow (1876–1962) was an English-born American architectural sculptor noted for work on buildings in Washington, D.C., including the Lincoln Memorial.

[1] Bairstow assisted Adolfo De Nesti (1870-1935) of Florence with the statuary of the District (Wilson) Building in Washington DC, was constructed between 1902 and 1908.

[6] Bairstow created plaster composition figures of the muses that were installed in arches over boxes on each side of the stage of the Gayety Theater in Washington.

Bairstow carved the eagle over the central opening, designed the twenty-eight limestone panels in the frieze on the sixth story, and undertook the ornamental work on the F Street entrances.

This included the text by Royal Cortissoz of the New York Herald Tribune which is carved above the large central statue by Daniel Chester French: "In this temple, as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the Union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever."