The Problem With Abe Lincoln's Face: The president's iconic beard was a product of the anxious new realities of the photographic age.
James Lundberg, writing at The Atlantic, describes how the new technology of photography changed people’s perceptions of themselves and their faces.
When Abraham Lincoln was running for President in 1860, a little girl wrote him a letter advising him to grow a beard to improve his appearance. And so he did.
“If you will let your whiskers grow,” she wrote, “you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin.”
I think this story is familiar to most Americans, taught in schools. What I did not realize until reading this article is that Lincoln’s looks were an issue because photography was new — it first came to the US 21 years earlier. Photo studios quickly swept the country and set off a fad for portraiture.
Those having their likeness taken for the first time did so with some combination of wonder and trepidation. Posing before the camera, early sitters said they felt drafts of air on their face or tingling in their cheeks. The process was orchestrated by a camera operator under a blanket–whom [Oliver Wendell Holmes, writing in The Atlantic in 1859] described as a chemical-wielding “skeleton shape, of about a man’s height, its head covered with a black veil.” The experience seemed to partake of the occult. And the results, often ghostly because of the long exposure times required, only strengthened such feelings.
These early sitters weren’t entirely wrong. There was no sorcery involved, but something was happening to them in front of the camera. Becoming an image, reckoning with an entirely new form of self-presentation, introduced an intense awareness not just of the self, but of the face.
Parallels to the later invention of television and smartphones are apparent.
RIP George Bell, 67, who stood 7'8" and was listed by Guinness as the tallest man in America. “I never had anyone else around who was 7-8 who I could talk to and who could help me learn how to handle it,” he said. “Fortunately for me, I’m a very patient person.” nytimes.com
A Rhode Island state legislator suggests getting around the Trump tariffs using a 1663 “royal charter” to declare the state a “free trade zone.” Sure, why not? abc6.com
Zuckerberg in the dock: The antitrust case against Meta is strong and the Trump White House seems inclined to pursue it aggressively. [pluralistic.net]
“You have only two choices if Trump comes after you: 1. If Domestic, fight. 2. If foreign, and he’s only threatening, tell him to pound sand and ignore him. If he does something, retaliate.” [ianwelsh.net]
Welsh is talking about strategy, not ethics. Obedience doesn’t work with Trump, who sees compliance as weakness and comes back for more.
“Apparently, people don’t want the US dollar to be a meme stock.” Also: “Far-right populist parties get into power by raging against the incumbents and the establishment and then once they’re in office, they have to continue to pretend like they aren’t actually in power.” [garbageday.email]
Scientists dispute Colossal Biosciences’ claims to have brought the dire wolf back from extinction. “… extinction is still forever.”
I want to see one feature in the iPhone and iPad: support for a clipboard manager that runs in the background. I don’t care about Siri, thinner devices, foldable phones, improved battery life or other rumored advances. Just give me a clipboard manager that runs in the background.
The Original Stock Photo From ‘The Shining’ Has Finally Been Found
It’s the photo that ends the movie, of Jack Nicholson in period costume composited into a photo of dozens of formally-dressed 1920s partygoers.
After decades of mystery, the original image — sans Jack Nicholson — has finally resurfaced in a photo archive after 45 years…. no one kept a record of where, what, and who was in the original photo. Following an investigation by retired British academic Alasdair Spark and New York Times journalist Aric Toler, it has been revealed the original photo was taken by the now defunct Topical Press Agency at a St. Valentine’s Day Ball in the Royal Palace Hotel, London, on February 14, 1921.