On October 15, 1860, eleven-year-old Grace Bedell wrote to presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln with a candid suggestion: his thin face would look much better with whiskers. She noted that “all the ladies” liked whiskers and might encourage their husbands to vote for him—an earnest bit of childhood political advice at a moment of deep national tension.
Lincoln replied four days later, gently wondering whether people would consider it “a piece of silly affectation” for him to begin wearing whiskers at that point in his life. He made no promise, but within about a month he had begun growing the beard that would become one of the most recognizable features of his presidency.
During his inaugural train journey to Washington, D.C., in February 1861, Lincoln stopped in Grace’s hometown of Westfield, New York, asked to meet her, kissed her cheek, and showed her the whiskers her letter had inspired. This photograph shows Grace in the 1870s, years after a child’s simple suggestion helped shape one of the most familiar faces in American history.
Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
