He's honest, chiseled, and shirtless. Oh yeah, he was also president back in the day.
Did you know? A young, shirtless, 8 foot Abraham Lincoln limestone statue stands inside the Los Angeles Courthouse and has been there for around 80 years. Turns out, the artist, James Lee Hansen, a local art student in 1939 who won a contest to decorate the building, used his own physique and created the statue somewhat in his own likeness. When asked why he created Abe in such a half-naked way, he simply stated, "Well, from a sculpturing standpoint, it’s better to show the body without any clothes. That’s why I left ’em off."
Hansen was paid $7,200 (which would be around $130,000 in 2019) for his work. He used part of that money to buy a nice car, but ended up crashing it later on and had to spend 18 days in jail.
Some people on Twitter have even gone as far to nickname the statue, “Honest Abs,” “Babe-raham Lincoln,” “The Gettysburg Undress,” when describing the young Abraham Lincoln holding a book and pulling down his pants waist.
photo: A statue of Abraham Lincoln is seen at the Lincoln Memorial February 12, 2016 in Washington, DC. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)