While Steven Spielberg gives us his biopic view of Abraham Lincoln this weekend, Lego builder Andrew Becraft offers a less realistic view of the United States' 16th president. He mounts minifig versions of other American leaders atop plastic dinosaurs, gives them guns, and creates moments from a strange alternate…
The statue of George Washington deemed too risqué for Capitol Hill
If you've been to the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC, then you may have seen "Enthroned Washington," the statue Horatio Greenough sculpted in honor of the centennial of George Washington. The statue was originally destined for the US Capitol rotunda, but many were offended by the idea of a…
The Capitol architect wanted to reanimate George Washington's dead body
George Washington may have been America's first president, but was he nearly America's first zombie-in-chief? If William Thornton, physician and designer of the US Capitol, had had his way, Washington's body would have been subjected a scientific experiment designed to bring the deceased former president back to life.
British used bioweapon in US War of Independence
A document has just gone on display at Mount Vernon, Virginia - the museum in the former home of George Washington, first US President. It is an order dated 1777 and signed by Washington himself to send troops that had not been vaccinated for smallpox - or survived it - to Philadelphia to be vaccinated. These troops…
Teddy Roosevelt murdering Sasquatch and FDR's mecha: the most insane…
Artist Jason Heuser is on a quest to commemorate those great moments in presidential history that never happened, like Old Hickory's defeat of an extraterrestrial army and Teddy the Trust-Buster busting up some Bigfoots. Heuser is selling prints of these pieces on Etsy. These fine portraits truly deserve a hallowed…
Was George Washington the victim of 18th century airbrushing?
It's not just modern magazines that tweak people's faces to fit the standard of beauty. For hundreds of years, portraits have been altered to reflect whatever ideas of beauty that people had at the time. Every woman in the 18th century appears to have the same nose. No one in the 17th century had any eyebrows to speak…
