426 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1952 



sculptor has tried to obliterate it. Probably, therefore, Volk and 

 Mills destroyed their original molds in the course of making the first 

 positive impressions. 



When we next compare the details in the two versions of Lincoln's 

 face by anthropometric caliper, we are confronted again by the mask- 

 ing effect of the beard and by the limitations of the sculptor's art. 

 For example, the beard in the Mills mask interferes with the taking 

 of the length and width of the face ; and the incomplete casting of the 

 ears makes it difficult to locate the borders of the ears. 



To these difficulties must be added another, namely, the scarcity of 

 natural metrical landmarks on unyielding plaster casts. Whereas the 

 measurer, in working with the living face, is guided by the feel of the 

 underlying bone, in working with the mask he cannot get below what 

 was the surface of the skin. For this reason measurements made on 

 masks are larger than the same diameters taken in life ; they are sub- 

 ject also to the measurer's judgment as to where to place the caliper. 



These considerations should be taken into account in assessing the 

 following standard facial measurements, which I have obtained on 

 the National Museum's precious masksj 



V oik's mas 7c Mills's mask 



Measurements (i860) (.1865) 



(defined in Stewart, 1952) mm. mm. 



Total face height (menton-crinion) 194 ? 



Lower face height (menton-nasiou) 122 ? 



Face breadth (bizygomatic) 148 ? 



Nose height 54 56 



Nose breadth 38 38 



Mouth breadth 55 59 



External ocular width 102? 102 



Ear length (right) 77? 78? 



Ear length (left) 78 ? 



Ear breadth (right) 43 46? 



Ear breadth (left) 39 37? 



To appreciate better the difference between measuring the living face 

 and a cast thereof we may take the two figures for mouth breadth in 

 the above list. This measure is the extreme distance between the cor- 

 ners of the mouth. In life the measuring point at each corner of the 

 mouth can be identified readily by the color change that marks the edge 

 of the mucous membrane. Of course, this color guide, like the bone 

 guide, is lost in the masks. The resulting metrical difference may be 

 due to my faulty judgment, seconded by the blurring of detail in the 

 Mills mask. 



Attention has been called already to the fact that the Mills mask 

 includes, in addition to the face, most of the vault of the head. If 

 this is a cast of the head taken over a cloth cap, a practice attributed to 

 Mills, the surface texture of this part of the cast does not supply 

 verification. My examination of the specimen, before I had read about 



