Abraham Lincoln’s face is possibly one of the most famous in the world, and his beard is probably the most famous. It appears on pennies, five dollar bills, and countless Presidents’ Day sale advertisements. In fact, there are more representations of this famous face, and beard, than there are individuals who have ever lived on the face of the planet. Yet, it is a little known fact that our sixteenth president didn’t even grow a beard until the last five years of his life!
Abraham Lincoln was born in a single room log cabin on Sinking Spring Farm in Hardin County, KY, on February 12, 1809, and spent most of his life in a rural environment. Contrary to the way we would like to think of our most beloved president, young Abe was often considered a slacker. Many friends and family members considered him lazy because he preferred reading and studying to the physical labor required by life on the frontier, and did his best to avoid such labor. Lincoln’s formal education, provided by a succession of itinerant teachers, probably amounted to less than a year. As he advanced into his teen years, however, he realized his …show more content…
Lincoln did all of this without his iconic beard. His facial hair, in the Shenandoah style, also know as a “chin curtain”, finally came about as the result of eleven year old Grace Bedell’s letter to the presidential candidate in 1860. She told him how her brothers, split between voting for him and opponent Stephen A. Douglas, may very well be swayed toward him were he to grow a beard, as was the style which had become the rage in the mid 1850’s. “Ladies love whiskers,” she told him, and they would persuade their menfolk to his side. Lincoln eventually took her advice, although not until after he had won the presidency. One can only imagine what would have become of the Emancipation Proclamation, or the Gettysburg Address, had either of them been delivered by a rustic looking backwoodsman without benefit of a glorious face full of
Abraham Lincoln was born in a single room log cabin on Sinking Spring Farm in Hardin County, KY, on February 12, 1809, and spent most of his life in a rural environment. Contrary to the way we would like to think of our most beloved president, young Abe was often considered a slacker. Many friends and family members considered him lazy because he preferred reading and studying to the physical labor required by life on the frontier, and did his best to avoid such labor. Lincoln’s formal education, provided by a succession of itinerant teachers, probably amounted to less than a year. As he advanced into his teen years, however, he realized his …show more content…
Lincoln did all of this without his iconic beard. His facial hair, in the Shenandoah style, also know as a “chin curtain”, finally came about as the result of eleven year old Grace Bedell’s letter to the presidential candidate in 1860. She told him how her brothers, split between voting for him and opponent Stephen A. Douglas, may very well be swayed toward him were he to grow a beard, as was the style which had become the rage in the mid 1850’s. “Ladies love whiskers,” she told him, and they would persuade their menfolk to his side. Lincoln eventually took her advice, although not until after he had won the presidency. One can only imagine what would have become of the Emancipation Proclamation, or the Gettysburg Address, had either of them been delivered by a rustic looking backwoodsman without benefit of a glorious face full of