# What was the deal with Abe Lincoln's eyes. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 8, 2016, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264 "2016-05-08T02:36:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264/1 "2016-05-08T02:36:41Z")
[I cam across this image.](http://cbsnews1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2012/02/10/209fdeaf-a645-11e2-a3f0-029118418759/resize/620x465/657dd4e2ce3306fe1ebaf9af77de6384/President_Lincoln_743781.jpg) His left eye is clearly out of alignment vertically; I’ve known folks with eyes out of line on the horizontal axis, but never this. Did it give him any particular difficulty? ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264/2 "2016-05-08T02:57:46Z")
Looks to me like a badly lit photograph, causing a shadow around his eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264/3 "2016-05-08T03:07:25Z")
Maybe he’s Emmanuelle Vaugier’s great-great-grandfather. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264/4 "2016-05-08T03:18:36Z")
Long exposure. The other eye was stronger so he favored it 'cuz he didn’t want to look like a dork in glasses. Lotsa reasons. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264/5 "2016-05-08T03:32:49Z")
His face isn’t symmetrical. One side is larger than the other. This is actually fairly common. In Lincoln’s case, it could be due to something like Bell’s Palsy, because it looks like it got more obvious as he got older. People with Bell’s Palsy have “droop” on one side of their face. Also, it took a long time to expose a photo back then, and you had to sit still for a while; Lincoln may not have had his eyes focused on anything. ---
**Author:** ![SpeedwayRyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@SpeedwayRyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpeedwayRyan)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264/6 "2016-05-08T03:46:22Z")
My God, his ears don’t line up either! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264/7 "2016-05-08T03:52:48Z")
> [@SpeedwayRyan](#): > > My God, his ears don’t line up either! Actually, he head is just cocked to one side. If you rotate the picture 4 degrees, his eyes and ears are aligned. ---
**Author:** ![SpeedwayRyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@SpeedwayRyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpeedwayRyan)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264/8 "2016-05-08T05:11:17Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Actually, he head is just cocked to one side. If you rotate the picture 4 degrees, his eyes and ears are aligned. If you rotate your head 4 degrees upward, you might see the joke that just went over it. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264/9 "2016-05-08T05:26:29Z")
> [@SpeedwayRyan](#): > > If you rotate your head 4 degrees upward, you might see the joke that just went over it. I understood the joke. That’s exactly what I was commenting on. You’re the one that was whooshed. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264/10 "2016-05-08T14:21:33Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > His left eye is clearly out of alignment vertically; I’ve known folks with eyes out of line on the horizontal axis, but never this. I don’t think it’s that uncommon. [Our local weather man](https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/378800000863862695/RxJQxH0d_400x400.jpeg)’s eyes are further out of alignment than that, for example. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264/11 "2016-05-08T14:31:43Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I understood the joke. That’s exactly what I was commenting on. You’re the one that was whooshed. 😉 Can you let the rest of us in on it, please? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264/12 "2016-05-08T15:08:01Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Can you let the rest of us in on it, please? 😕 I’d be interested as well. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264/13 "2016-05-08T16:43:39Z")
My eyes are slightly out of alignment as well. I can’t recall which eye is higher than the other, because in my case it’s not enough to notice unless you really try hard, but it does have a minor impact. I cannot see those ‘3-D’ pictures where you need to let your eyes cross, because mine don’t cross ‘evenly’. I didn’t discover the ‘problem’ until I was 40-something when I went to my eye doctor with eye strain; he gave me a prescription for glasses that have s prism in one lens to shift the image up (or possibly down, I don’t recall) so that both eyes would see images on the same plane. They didn’t really help with the eye strain though. But I fixed that by taking more frequent breaks from starting at my computer screen at work. I stopped wearing the glasses after a while; i think my body had just gotten used to the way my eyes operated, and trying to change out after first years just want working. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264/14 "2016-05-08T16:49:03Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Can you let the rest of us in on it, please? 😕 > [@White SIFL](#): > > I’d be interested as well. It’s pretty obvious. The apparent misalignment is due to Lincoln’s head being slightly cocked to one side (as the misaligned ears also indicate, as **Speedway Ryan** also noticed, but chose not to explain). In [other](http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/29100000/Abraham-Lincoln-February-12-1809-April-15-1865-celebrities-who-died-young-29147918-300-372.jpg) [photos](http://f.tqn.com/y/history1800s/1/L/S/0/-/-/lincoln-1858.jpg), his eyes and the tops of his ears are more aligned. His eyes are somewhat asymmetric, but I don’t think they are at greatly different levels. I don’t think you could demonstrate lack of alignment of the eyes from a photograph unless you were sure his head was exactly level. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264/15 "2016-05-08T17:46:37Z")
But if you rotate the photo until it’s level . . . then his mouth is crooked. The problem, though is with his eyebrows. They seem to extend downward, all the way to his eyes. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264/16 "2016-05-08T19:45:28Z")
All joking aside, everyone has a certain amount of facial asymmetry. Wikipedia even has a nice drawing of a face that has been cut in half and each half duplicated and flipped to make the point. > [@](#): > > While symmetrical faces (leftmost image) are perceived to be attractive, completely symmetric faces (a and b) are disconcerting and are not perceived as normal. See the picture at the top of this article: > **[Facial symmetry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facial_symmetry)** > > Facial symmetry is one specific measure of bodily symmetry. Along with traits such as averageness and youthfulness, it influences judgments of aesthetic traits of physical attractiveness and beauty. For instance, in mate selection, people have been shown to have a preference for symmetry. > Facial bilateral symmetry is typically defined as fluctuating asymmetry of the face comparing random differences in facial features of the two sides of the face. The human face also has systematic, directional ... That said, Lincoln’s face showed a greater degree of asymmetry than what is normal. Cite: > [@](#): > > Laser scans of two life masks, made from plaster casts of Lincoln’s face, reveal the 16th president’s unusual degree of facial asymmetry, according to a new study. > > The left side of Lincoln’s face was much smaller than the right, an aberration called cranial facial microsomia. The defect joins a long list of ailments — including smallpox, heart illness and depression — that modern doctors have diagnosed in Lincoln. > **[Abe Lincoln diagnosed with facial defect](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna20250871)** > > The left side of Lincoln’s face was much smaller than the right, an aberration called cranial facial microsomia. The defect joins a long list of ailments — including smallpox, heart illness and depression — that modern doctors have diagnosed in... Many of the potential implications of Lincoln’s facial asymmetry along with his other distinctive features are discussed at length in this wikipedia article: > **[Health of Abraham Lincoln](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_and_mental_health_of_Abraham_Lincoln)** > > Abraham Lincoln's health has been the subject of both contemporaneous commentary and subsequent hypotheses by historians and scholars. Until middle age, his health was fairly good for the time. He contracted malaria in 1830 and 1835; the latter was the worse of the two cases. He contracted smallpox in 1863 during an 1863 to 1864 epidemic in Washington, D.C. > Throughout his life he experienced periods of depression, which could have been genetic, due to life experiences or trauma, or both. Linco... ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264/17 "2016-05-08T22:03:38Z")
Obviously, any human being with two functional eyes can make them line up parallel to the ground any time they like. Whether your ears, eyebrows and mouth will be getting with the program at the same time is a whole 'nother matter. But ears, eyebrows and mouth make no contribution to vision. So I don’t see how any “misalignment” could make a difference ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264/18 "2016-05-09T01:30:01Z")
_90210_’s [Shannon Doherty](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l5ll45o5Ll1qbn1vmo1_500.jpg) famously had this misalignment… ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264/19 "2016-05-12T12:13:22Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > But if you rotate the photo until it’s level . . . then his mouth is crooked. > > The problem, though is with his eyebrows. They seem to extend downward, all the way to his eyes. More concerning to me is his nose. I never realized before that he had three nostrils. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2016, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264/20 "2016-05-12T12:23:31Z")
He’s got Bette Davis eyes. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-abe-lincolns-eyes/754264.md?page=2)