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David: Lincoln is an object of enduring fascination to Americans
both in the 19th century when he comes literally out of nowhere to become
the crucial president in the breakup of the union and the fighting of the Civil War.
And because he is martyred, because he is assassinated, this all makes a kind of human and tragic figure
that fits into our own notion of Americans as people who invent ourselves.
Lincoln is the first president that we have
of which there are many photographs.
There are certainly more photographs of him than
I think that we see of maybe paintings.
And obviously you know we have the two life masks.
And so I think having those masks really shows
how he looked in 1860, how he looked in 1865.
David: In the life mask and in the 3D representation,
you can really see the strain of office,
and the strain of wartime office etched on his face.
The 3D process is really interesting.
First of all, Lincoln would have loved it. But above all,
what the 3D technology does is it allows us to bridge that gap between the present and the past
by recreating his face in a way that students and other people,
the public, can appreciate.
Having 3D content that's on a familiar topic like Lincoln
is helpful for teachers to make that connection between
the frontier of digital learning
and what they're already teaching in the classroom.
And then for students, the entry point is that it's high-engagement.
They're not quite as concerned about Lincoln as they are with, 'What?...3D?
this is going to be awesome.'
We start with that very simple question: what do you see?
And it's from 'what do you see' that we can springboard
into a conversation about Lincoln's biography,
about the history of the era, about Lincoln's contributions.
The ability to again be able to hold the mask in your hand
I think only enhance their understanding of Lincoln
because it makes it relevant and it makes it accessible.
David: Most presidents if not all of them are interested in their legacy
and how they're perceived in the future. And I think there's no doubt,
in the same way they would use time-based media,
computer and film as a way of crafting and molding their image, they will use 3D imagery.
Briana: When we think of history, we automatically think of biography
because it really, it's the people that shaped the world we live in today.
Anything in my view that connects us to the past is to the good.
And what this allows is the wide dissemination of the life masks.
It takes that imagery and puts it out in the public square
so that people, many more people,
will be able to see it, enjoy it, and hopefully learn from it.