Just for today, an interesting story about the Lincoln Memorial from Sarah Vowell’s excellent book Assassination Vacation:

[Lincoln Memorial sculptor David Chester] French obsessed for years about how to sculpt Lincoln’s peculiar face, fretting and reading and thinking, before commiting to the brooding, seated philosopher in the memorial. He received the commission in 1913, so by the time the memorial was finally dedicated—nine years later—the sculptor was a little pent up worrying how his work would come off. Hoping to celebrate, French looked upon the final installation with horror.

The problem with putting in a reflecting pool? The darn thing reflects. When the light off the reflecting pool bounced up onto Lincoln’s face, it looked as if a flashlight hand been held under his chin. Lincoln looked frightened, startled, confused—Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” by way of McCaulay Culkin’s “Home Alone.” Apparently “hilarious” wasn’t the aesthetic French had been going for.

French pestered the government enough over the years that they eventually installed electric lighting above Lincoln’s statue, restoring him to his proper, dignified state. Vowell goes on to say that in fact, maybe the “frightened, startled and confused” Lincoln looking down on the current state of affairs might not be so inappropriate after all.

Anyway, I did a quick search for Lincoln trivia this morning before remembering the above story from Vowell’s book, and I found the following factoid on numerous Lincoln websites:

Lincoln had a wart on his right cheek, a scar on his thumb from an ax accident, and a scar over his right eye from a fight with a gang of thieves.

I love that last detail. Who gets into a fight with a gang of thieves? I just pray that if this actually happened, he was wearing the stovepipe hat at the time. Honestly, could he be more awesome?

tags: holidays, politics | link to this entry |