This is absolutely true. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Young_Lincoln
It was completed in 1941?! That’s so much farther back than I would have expected based on the pose. Men weren’t sexy in the 1940’s, they just said “swell” and all had those thick black glasses.
What? Men weren’t sexy?
My great aunt had photos up of my late great uncle doing pushups on a railroad track, in short shorts, with her sitting on his back. I can’t remember if the pictures was from before he went to war or after.
They did wear those high pants and dressed more formally, but it was because they had less clothes.
Well, it was completed in 1941 while the US was still strongly isolationist. We didn’t enter WW2 until after the attack on Pearl Harbor, which was December 7th.
So yeah, there was a world war going on, but the statue was planned and completed while it was largely “business as usual” in the US.