"Lincoln, Life-Size": Abraham Lincoln's Fascinating Face (PHOTOS)

Abraham Lincoln has fascinated people ever since his presidency, and is one of the most visually recognizable presidents in U.S. history. In a new book (written by family members of HuffPost Books Intern Jessie Kunhardt, as blogged about a few weeks ago) called "Lincoln, Life-Size," Lincoln's face is examined in great detail as famous and little-known photographs are blown up to the actual size of his face.

Co-author Philip B. Kunhardt III points out that there are some startling differences in the right and left sides of Lincoln's face:

In some of the pictures Lincoln's right eye looks half-asleep while the left stares wide-open. Cover half the face and each side looks like it belongs to a different person, one appearing downcast and uncertain, the other determined. A person speaking with him would in a sense face two Lincolns, one soft and exhausted, the other fiercely alert.

The photographs that follow, shown here with with captions written for The Huffington Post by Philip Kunhardt, are from the book, and show the dynamic asymmetry of Lincoln's face.

• • • • • • • • • • • • Here is the face that I call “bashful.”

Comments

[gilbskg]

12:59 PM on 02/12/2010

I love Lincoln's face. If any of you get to the Chicago Historical Society, they have Lincoln's death mask. It is one thing to see photographs, but this mask, which obviously touched his face, was so "life like" (weird considering it is a death mask) I felt certain he was going to open his eyes and speak to me.

Photos of that face are always compelling, but that death mask blow them all away. Check it out.

[Tulka2]

12:46 AM on 12/06/2009

John Brown was not symetrical in sort of the same degree. You may have to cut and paste to get to this image of the young John Brown:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/551335/71514/John-Brown-from-a-daguerreotype-on-which-wa

[ScottyBob]

08:35 AM on 12/01/2009

Every body part that humans have two of... one is always larger. Eyes, ears, hands, breasts...

Next time you use a camera, check to see if you look through the view finder with your larger eye.

[VA Jill]

05:48 PM on 11/29/2009

If I remember correctly, Lincoln suffered a rather nasty head injury as a young man...kicked by a mule, or something like that...which could have accounted for the droopy eye, or for the other one. I don't remember which side the injury was on, but I do remember reading that ever afterward he had severe headaches.

[camainc]

12:30 PM on 02/12/2010

If you ever have a chance to visit the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, IL, make sure to take in the show "Lincoln's Eyes." It will blow you away.

http://www.alplm.org/museum/union_theater.html

[tploomis]

05:19 PM on 11/29/2009

In all of these pictures, both sides of his face look incredibly depressed.

[Mannock]

01:49 PM on 11/29/2009

A fascinating looking man.

[MrJoyboy]

11:18 AM on 11/29/2009

Where is this kind of dignity, grace and intelligence in the grinning faces of today's presidents?

[greymom]

10:32 AM on 11/30/2009

In all fairness, in those days it took several seconds for exposure. To purposefully smile or grin for a photo would look maniacal and odd. You will never see a grinning face in photos of that era. This is not to say that he never smiled or grinned, only that photographs of the time did not capture it.

[MrJoyboy]

11:56 AM on 11/30/2009

Even in the modern era, you won't find too many world leaders outside the U.S. grinning for the camera like car salesmen.

[gilbskg]

12:55 PM on 02/12/2010

Absolutely correct!

[Pleneras]

02:06 PM on 11/28/2009

His brain focused on one eye more than the other. He, like millions, had a lazy eye. The comparisons of both sides is incorrect. If you had a lazy eye you would know this. It's one side taking control of the other without the other side giving up all vision.

[seattle music]

03:59 AM on 11/29/2009

Agreed.

I've been fighting this since childhood.

It's much worse when I'm tired.

[Turtleposer]

10:18 AM on 11/30/2009

Me too!

[greymom]

10:33 AM on 11/30/2009

My son has this too.

[Terriac]

02:03 PM on 11/27/2009

These pictures are fascinating.

[EnPointe]

10:51 AM on 11/25/2009

The most beautiful face I've ever seen. His picture has always seemed to stop my breath, calm, and humble me.

[generationyes]

11:11 AM on 11/28/2009

Well and beautifully said.

[EnPointe]

08:21 PM on 11/28/2009

Thank you. I'm lucky enough to have been born and live just a few miles from his birthplace. Astonishingly lovely and peaceful. One of my favorite places to go since I was very little.

[yemaya]

10:45 PM on 11/23/2009

They no longer think he had marfan's but he did have a marfan like body that according to research I did is common in other disorders. They think he had MEN 2b. MULTIPLE ENDOCRINE NEOPLASIA, TYPE IIB; MEN2B.

[Mannock]

01:57 PM on 11/29/2009

You may be right. I wonder if it is genetic or a result of a malady in his younger days.

[midwesthousewife]

05:33 PM on 11/23/2009

Years ago I read an article that everyone's face has two sides--one side is the face for the public and the other is the private face. I can't remember which side was said to be which. I am thinking the right side is the public side, and the left is the private, but maybe it is reversed. Seems clear that Lincoln had a particularly big gulf between his public and private face. Has anyone else read about that?

[lillibelle]

09:29 AM on 11/27/2009

While I have not read that article, your post reminds me of a story...

When a woman criticized PresidentLincoln for being 'two-faced,' be calmly replied, without missing a beat, "Madam, I ask you, if I had another face, do you think I would be wearing this one?"

[seattle music]

04:02 AM on 11/29/2009

Well, all self-deprecating humor aside, I have always considered him to be have one of the most beautiful faces I have ever seen.

When anyone asks me to admire Hollywood's latest pretty-boy, I just smile and think of Lincoln. He had the face of a giant -- far beyond Hollywood's ken.

[Bitsko]

09:37 PM on 11/22/2009

"Abraham Lincoln has fascinated people ever since his presidency..." Well actually he was fascinating people long before he became president.

[old lady]

07:39 PM on 11/22/2009

The amazing thing is one can see the inner beauty reflected in that face. Striking compared to today's fever quest to manufactured "beauty" to cover a soul-less empty shell.

[yemaya]

10:03 PM on 11/23/2009

very nicely put old lady!

[Patrick Murfin]

07:34 PM on 11/22/2009

Comparing myself in no other way to Lincoln, I have a similar half-closed eye on one side of my face, made more noticeable when I'm tired. It was the result of a long bout with Bell's Palsy and the resultant muscle atrophy. I had it when I was in my early twenties and it was untreated. I later had it on the other side of my face in my thirties, but got regular physical therapy preventing muscle atrophy so that side looks normal. Since Abe probably did not have access to the electric "face zapper" I had, I'm guessing he might have had Bell Palsy.

[sempronia]

09:23 PM on 11/28/2009

I was going to suggest that as well -- I was in a production of Titus Andronicus in college, and the actor in the eponymous role had had a recent bout with Bell's Palsy. It took a good deal of effort on his part, but the overall effect of having one side of his face stiffened and playing the part of a grizzled old warrior going mad in the midst of tragedy was stunning and terrifying.

[Mannock]

01:56 PM on 11/29/2009

Before I read your post I had suggested this too. It makes sense. In the other post I asked if he had scarlet fever as a child or teen, or even as an adult.

It has been suggested that Abraham Lincoln had the highest IQ of any president, higher than Adams. It is amply demonstrated in this face.