Getting to Know George Washington

getting to know A view of the completed figure of the 19-year-old Washington. George WashingtonBy Jeffrey H. Schwartz n the spring of 2003, I found myself learning more Iabout our country’s first president and 18th century art, clothing, and dentistry than I ever dreamed likely. But there I was one day in April, sitting with Laura Fisher, executive director of French and Indian War 250, who was asking me if Figure 1. Bust of George Washington. I thought I could reconstruct a life-like replica of Images courtesy of Jeffrey H. Schwartz. George Washington in 1754. 52 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | SPRING 2010 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | SPRING 2010 53 A view of the completed figure of the 45-year-old That would be when he was 22 years old, a course I said I would take on the project, not hairline) and produced a terracotta bust— Washington on his horse Blueskin. junior officer in the English militia stationed in only because it meant reconstructing George the face of which, I later figured out, must Western Pennsylvania. I had been working for Washington but also because it would the have been a replica of the life mask. He also some 20 years as the forensic anthropologist first time anyone tried to de-age an individual took body measurements for a marble statue with the Coroner’s (now Medical Examiner’s) without the aid of photographs and image- (Figure 1) that he sculpted upon his return Office of Allegheny County, which is how manipulating computer software. Only after to Paris that is so detailed one can see seams Laura found me. agreeing did Laura tell me that the authorities at in clothing and “impressions” of fingernails I’ve always been intrigued by the kind George Washington’s Mount Vernon did not under tight-fitting gloves. In contrast to other of forensic reconstruction like in the movie allow anyone access to Washington’s bones. people of power, who wanted their likenesses Gorky Park—using clay plugs representing No bones? What’s a forensic anthropologist, portrayed larger than life, Washington insisted averages of soft tissue depths at different especially a skeletal specialist like me, to do? that the statue reflect his true height, which, landmarks of the skull and lower jaw as a guide The challenge deepened but I had to do this, at 6 feet, 2-1/2 inches (by my calculations), to transforming bone into a face—and thought somehow. Indeed, good fortune turned out to was still appreciably taller than the average this would be once-in-a-lifetime challenge. Of be on my side. man of that time. ven if I had been permitted to measure these three- E dimensional representations of Washington I would have been too nervous to handle them, much less put the sharp tips of calipers upon them. In 1785, internationally renowned French Even if I had been permitted to measure court artist Jean-Antoine Houdon declined these three-dimensional representations of an opportunity to immortalize Catherine Washington, I would have been too nervous the Great of Russia in favor of a request to handle them, much less examine with from Washington’s supporters to capture the sharp tips of calipers. Who wants to be the image of the former Commander of the the first person to damage the life mask of Continental Army. Thus, when Washington George Washington? Someone else had was 53 years old, Houdon spent two weeks at already dropped the bust, fortunately not Mount Vernon. Any details of the visit that cracking the face, but a repair around the hair Houdon recorded were lost when his atelier in is very noticeable. Paris and everything in it were burned to the However, while lecturing at Arizona State ground during the French Revolution (1789- University on human fossils and evolution, 1799). We do know that Houdon followed I was introduced to a group, PRISM, Washington through his daily activities, which had been collaborating with physical making sketches and notes that would help anthropologists to scan bones in 3-D and then him imbue his work with the essence of his digitally measure and compare them. This subject. Houdon made a life mask (a positive was perfect for analyzing the life mask, bust, plaster replica taken from the plaster mold and statue, especially because no matter what made of Washington’s face just past the the measurements taken by hand, they would Statue of George 54 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | SPRING 2010 Washington. WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | SPRING 2010 55 fter Washington resigned... Nineteen-year-old Washington From letters, diaries, and other documents Washington’s own writing tells of his contracted smallpox while visiting his at Mount Vernon, we receive a partial picture of oral agonies, his ongoing attempts to scrape Ahe would not accept a dinner tuberculotic half-brother Lawrence on Washington’s “oral history.” His senior officer and otherwise keep clean teeth that were on Barbados. Yet no reliable portrait, much less in the British militia remarked of Washington their way out and those still firmly in place, invitation without first the life mask—the closest thing to realizing at age 25 that while he was tall, lanky, sinewy, and of his applying the latest poultices and being assured that the food Washington’s facial skin—depicts typical and strong, he was already so self-conscious other concoctions to retard his oral disease. signs of smallpox-induced scarification. The of his dental demise that he was reluctant to But his was a losing battle. By the early 1789, would be soft, not simplest conclusion, I thought, was that the speak for fear of exposing his blackened teeth. Washington had lost all but two teeth. By “dimple” in Washington’s cheek was his only Nevertheless, Washington, a self-confessed April 30, 1789, when he was inaugurated, requiring him to chew. visible scar, a small “souvenir” of his bout with walnut addict, would crack their shells with Washington retained only one: the lower right the disease. I wanted the detailed expressions his teeth. This had to have traumatized the second bicuspid. and poses for each Washington to be unique, ligaments and soft tissue investing these While Washington may have had a few Figure 2. The Mount Vernon dentures: the only surviving complete set. The plates so I digitally removed the scar, thereby teeth, providing a perfect breeding ground for more teeth when Houdon visited him, I am are made of lead; the teeth in the upper situating the 19-year-old Washington prior to bacterial infection that would then produce an certain he no longer had any front teeth. One never faithfully recreate a complex three- and the ears generally smaller than, say, at are horse (front) and cow (rear); the visiting Barbados. abscess requiring tooth extraction, which, in day, after months of studying the two Charles dimensional object, such as a face. There was 65. We also lose fat from our faces, especially teeth in the lower are human but not all The primary factor affecting Washington’s turn, would lead to bone loss. Willson Peale portraits of Washington at the no hesitation from PRISM about assisting with below the cheekbones and around the eyes, in their correct location. I dated these face was his decades-long struggle with tooth dentures to at least 30 April 1789; the my Washington project. which become more hollow looking or sunken decay and no doubt general infection of his manufacturer remains unknown. About this time a new education center as we grow older. In children of both sexes gums, which would have led to tooth loss, was started at George Washington’s Mount the bone of the upper rim of the eye socket primarily through extraction. After a tooth is Vernon Estate and Gardens. Laura introduced and the region above the bridge of the nose lost the surrounding bone then resorbs. With me to Executive Director James Rees, who is smoothly continuous. After puberty and complete tooth loss in the upper jaw, the envisioned—as centerpieces in the new exhibit especially in males, the bone in these areas bone that once extended fully down around hall—life-sized replicas of Washington at often thickens. With these facts in mind, it long tooth roots retreats to lie almost right three different ages representing important was relatively simple for me to conceptualize under the nose and on back. In the lower jaw, moments in the first president’s life. The the young Washington: manipulate the the bone thins from top to bottom by more youngest was Washington at 19 years old, scanned 53-year-old face to slightly reduce the than half and, especially in males, the angle when he was a surveyor in Virginia trying to length of the nose and overall size of the ears, at the back becomes softer looking and less support his mother and numerous half- and fill in the cheeks and around the eyes, and prominent under the skin, muscle, and fat. full-siblings. The second was Washington at flatten out the swollen bone “under” and I was certain that Washington’s jaws age 45, when he and his nearly disintegrated between the eyebrows. were fairly close to this condition when army suffered the winter at Valley Forge. In Houdon’s reproductions as well as in Houdon made the life mask and bust, which The third was 57-year-old Washington being reliable portraits of Washington, such as those I used with little alteration as the 57-year-old inaugurated on April 30, 1789, near what it by Charles Willson Peale and Gilbert Stuart, Washington’s face.

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