"Shockingly Realistic Sculpture Portrays Abraham Lincoln"

[Liz Rosenthal]

I love the article, too! I note that two different eyewitness accounts state that Lincoln had white teeth.

Gore Vidal, in his novel, Lincoln, apparently was convinced enough of Abe's white teeth to have included a reference to them. Vidal generally was pretty good on his facts, even if he sometimes attributed a statement made by Abe to Mary or a recollection of Gideon Welles to John Hay!

It seems to me, also, that, with all the contemporaries who were eager to point out how "ugly" Lincoln was (an opinion with which I disagree), or the oddness of his body or gait, they would have jumped on any opportunity to write about his teeth if they were unsightly. The fact that only one person did so, and that this one account is suspect given the claim that Lincoln's teeth were tobacco-stained, is further support for the idea that Lincoln had good teeth.

The fluoride theory is interesting. But I think that Lincoln just had an extraordinary physical constitution in general, whether you're talking about athleticism, physical strength, stamina or immunity to disease. (He also had an amazing brain!) You rarely, if ever, see any mention of Lincoln taking ill, with the most conspicuous examples being, besides his two instances of acute depression, his bout with varioloid, a minor form of smallpox. Considering that Lincoln was probably exposed to smallpox at the same time as his assistant, William Johnson, who died of the disease, I think it's pretty remarkable that Lincoln got through it as well as he did.