Well first of all the most dramatic thing that Lincoln does, and it's the most I think
the single most dramatic change in appearance that any president has ever done either in
office or between the time he's elected and taking the office, is that Lincoln, between
the election in November and the inauguration in March, grew a beard.
That this was unexpected.
Lincoln was always disparaging about his looks.
And there's the famous episode where a little girl in Pennsylvania wrote him a letter, a
note.
And Lincoln was actually good enough to keep the note and to reply to her, where she's
she said to him effectively, well, sir, since you are so homely, have you ever thought of
growing a beard?
Because that way the ladies would like you more.
And Lincoln wrote her back a charming letter saying, well, first of all that this would
evidence, if he grew a beard, it would evidence that he was concerned about his look, and
that it would be a mark of vanity which he didn't really want take on.
And also he was afraid of the effect it might have on Mrs. Lincoln, that he was suddenly
appealing to the ladies.
So there is this humorous letter in which Lincoln takes the child, takes the little
girl very seriously and corresponds with her as if she was an adult on the nature a vanity.
But interestingly enough, and whether it was a trigger or not, he did grow a beard during
that period.
But I think there's some notion here that I've gotten from people like yourself who
are students of legends and myths that Lincoln was going to war.
That he was putting on a kind of wild look.
He was letting himself grow is hair out, grow his beard out as a sign of sort of aggression,
a sign of sort of masculinity, a sign of sort of testosterone-driven male behavior.
And that he was subconsciously evidencing what he thought would be the impending crisis
which would lead irrevocably to war.
The other thing about it is, because I'm interested in biography and portraiture, is that he’s
signaling a real gap between peacetime and war; that he is dramatically changing his
looks as I said in a way that no other president has ever done, as a way of demarcating peace
from war.
That there is now he is putting aside in [Paul’s?] words childish things and going to battle.
And effectively battle politically, battle ultimately militarily, and that the beard
becomes a symbol of that.
That there is an in entirely changed atmosphere.
That the passivity of the Buchanan administration will recede into history.
And we see his generals, men around him, they all have beards.
Right.
It’s amusing for somebody who's been working in the last several months on masculinity
and identity and sexuality that it's only in the 20th century that short hair becomes
masculine.
It’s after World War Two with the introduction to the crew-cut in which the mass military,
people like my father who served in the Marine Corps, had a buzz cut, and that became male.
You had short hair and you were masculine.
Well, in the 19th century, you had long hair and you were masculine.
There was no notion that JEB Stuart or, you know, William Tecumseh Sherman or others who
had beards and longish hair were effeminate in any kind of way.
Certainly not.
These were manly man who wanted to go out to battle and were girding themselves to do
just that.
Custer, of course, famous for his long hair and his vanity about his locks.
And Stewart, the great sort of cavalier the South.
And the idea was that long hair connected you with a kind of romantic traditional of
the Arthurian Knights and certainly the kind of flamboyant individuality which was permissible
in the 19th century, but in the mechanized warfare of World War II would be stamped out.
I mean, if you think, you know, it’s again one of the highlights for me of the 1950s
and ‘60s was the way in which long hair suddenly becomes subversive or effeminate.
But in fact in the course of American history most of our heroes have had very long hair.
It was something about hearkening back to the days of old when all the sudden men with
long hair are outside marching for peace.
Exactly.
Thank you very much for your time this morning.
We're very grateful to you.
Thanks