President’s Day Innovation: What George Washington really looked like

As the Arizona Republic explains, for the past 2 1/2 years, a team of researchers at Arizona State and the University of Pittsburgh have been using a mix of anthropology, 3-D scanning, and digital reconstruction to figure out what George Washington actually looked like at ages 19, 45, and 57:

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“George Washington, as it turns out, was pretty hot. You wouldn’t know that by looking at a dollar bill, from which Washington stares out unsmiling and grim.

But now, images have emerged that are perhaps the most accurate yet of the nation’s first president at a younger age… He is not the Washington on the dollar bill. The younger version has a relaxed expression, creamy complexion, a lean

and muscular build and flowing auburn hair tied in a ponytail. There is

Washington at age 19 as a land surveyor, Washington at 45 during the

Revolutionary War, and Washington at 57 when he took the presidential

oath.”

Wax museums around the world must be salivating at the opportunity to re-construct famous historical figures using this same technology: “The technology used to re-create Washington could be replicated for

other presidents and historical figures, although no project is under

way… You could do Lincoln, Jefferson, so many of our Founding Fathers.”

[image: George Washington at age 45]