Why Lincoln Grew A Beard (1860)

This Day in Esoteric Political History

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2021

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s October 17th. This day in 1860, in the run-up to the next month’s presidential election, Abraham Lincoln received a letter from an 11-year-old girl urging him to grow a beard and improve his prospects.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie read from the incredibly charming exchange between Lincoln and Grace Bedell of Westfield, NY.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.
0:07.0	My name is Jody Abergan.
0:10.0	This day, October 17th, let's go to the year 1860. It is an election year.
0:17.0	Who is running for President?
0:18.7	Abraham Lincoln, of course. You can picture the guy, picture him tall, skinny tall skinny big hat big beard.
0:25.1	Let me stop you right there though on that last point
0:27.0	because at this moment just before being elected
0:29.2	Abe Lincoln has no beard.
0:31.6	But that was about to change perhaps in part because of a letter that was
0:34.9	written to him right around this time in 1860 by an 11 year old girl from Westfield, New York, Grace
0:41.3	Bedell. In it, she urged Lincoln to grow a beard already. And Lincoln,
0:46.4	you know, as we all know, he did. So I'm going to read from this letter in a second,
0:50.8	but first let me say that here to discuss the correspondence
0:53.5	Lincoln's Beard maybe a little presidential facial hair history as well are as
0:58.7	always Nicole Hammer of Columbia and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.
1:02.6	Hello there.
1:03.7	Hello, Jody.
1:05.1	Hey there.
1:07.4	I'm going to read from the letter in a second.
1:08.5	Let me just say that I find this story charming as hell. It's so sweet.
1:14.0	I was kind of wondering if you're starting to grow a bit of a beard there, Jody, just in response to this letter.
1:20.0	No, and I actually think this got me thinking about beards as, you know, tactical political maneuvers versus
	...

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