The whiskers have since become inseparable from the memory of the man; no card-carrying Lincoln impersonator leaves home without them. Even a pre-beard portrait was old-timey-photoshopped to include whiskers after Lincoln took office. Contact us at letters time. A beardless Lincoln by Currier and Ives. By Jennifer Latson. It reads, in part : I have yet got four brothers and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin.
Related Stories. America Needs to Get Back to Facts. Though Abraham Lincoln's beard is now an indelible part of his image, it didn't come into existence until after he'd won the presidential election in November Lincoln decided to grow out his whiskers in part thanks to some well-meaning advice from a young supporter.
The beard won public approval and may have helped keep Lincoln safe from an assassination plot in Lincoln was striking to behold: he had a gaunt, wrinkled face, a long neck and was tall enough to tower over his contemporaries. And throughout his career, mocking his appearance was considered fair game.
When he was running for president in a paper in Houston described him as "the leanest, lankiest, most ungainly mass of legs, arms, and hatchet face ever strung upon a single frame. Photographs were becoming more widely available, but the current methods called for lengthy posing times that made it impossible to capture Lincoln's smile and approachability. Photos could be and were retouched, but some Republicans in New York believed Lincoln "would be much improved in appearance, provided you would cultivate whiskers, and wear standing collars.
Menschel Gift, In , Bedell's Republican father brought home a Lincoln poster from a county fair, but the images on it didn't impress her.
Following this, and after listening to some classmates disparage the candidate, on October 15 Bedell wrote Lincoln a letter that said in part: "I have yet got four brothers and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President.
In his response to Bedell on October 19, Lincoln shared some concerns regarding her advice: "As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affection if I were to begin wearing them now?
After all, he wasn't vain and in fact had a history of engaging in self-deprecating humor about his looks. Lincoln went on to win the presidency, but soon after the election, he told his barber he wanted to let his whiskers grow. It's uncertain exactly why he made the decision. Lincoln may have felt a beard could help set him apart from clean-shaven presidential predecessors like James Buchanan and Franklin Pierce , whose missteps had led the nation to the brink of war. The facial hair may have been intended to provide a link to his frontier background as he headed to Washington, D.
Whatever the reason for his decision, it made Lincoln the country's first fully-bearded president. Silly affection or not, later that fall and winter, Lincoln grew a beard. By January 13, , the newly elected president had bearded up. Lincoln showed off his new face to the public when he left Springfield, Illinois, to Washington, D. Both provide an interesting and unusual footnote to history, though one thing history is silent on is why Lincoln decided to grow a beard.
But he knew good political theater when he saw it. Prior to Lincoln, John Quincy Adams had big, puffy sideburns. Martin Van Buren and Zachary Taylor had sideburns but not full beards. After Lincoln, Chester A.
0コメント