An Anthropologist Looks at Lincoln 



By T. D. Stewart 



Curator, Division of Physical Anthropology 

 U. S. National Museum 



[With 4 plates] 



"Do you often see Professor Henry?" inquired the President, 

 as soon as the door had closed. 



I smiled, for it was the identical question which the professor 

 had asked me about the President. 



"My visits to the Smithsonian, to Dr. Henry, and his able lieu- 

 tenant, Professor Baird, are the chief recreations of my life," I said. 

 "These men are missionaries to excite scientific research and pro- 

 mote scientific knowledge. The country has no more faithful 

 servants, though it may have to wait another century to appre- 

 ciate the value of their labors." 



"I had an impression," said Mr. Lincoln, "that the Smithsonian 

 was printing a great amount of useless information. Professor 

 Henry has convinced me of my error . . ." (L. E. Chittenden, 

 Recollections of President Lincoln and His Administration, p. 238, 

 1901. Harper & Bros., New York.) 



Famous men, by virtue of outstanding traits of character and per- 

 sonality, often impart an impression of physical bigness regardless 

 of their actual size. The physiques of such men, being easily visual- 

 ized, as compared to the intangible traits, even after the men them- 

 selves are dead, tend to grow in remembrance, feeding as it were on 

 the increasing fame of their intellectual accomplishments. Sculptors 

 carry on this idea by representing these great men in heroic 

 proportions. 



Abraham Lincoln is one of the best examples of this type of ad- 

 miration. Earely has a man, sprung from such humble surround- 

 ings, self-taught, and self -advanced, been the subject of such inten- 

 sive study. His strength of character and clarity of thought need 

 no comment. In the physical sense he was very tall and seemed even 

 taller because of his leanness. Is it any wonder, then, that his ap- 

 pearance stuck and grew in the minds of those who, immediately after 

 his death, began to assemble their recollections ; and that with more 



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