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Why did Alexander Calder celebrate two different birthdays?
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Alexander Calder
American artist Alexander Calder with one of his mobiles in his Roxbury, Connecticut, studio.
The American artist Alexander Calder celebrated two different birthdays because of a discrepancy between his family's records and official documentation.1
While his family consistently maintained that he was born on August 22, 1898, Calder discovered a conflict when he requested his birth certificate from Philadelphia City Hall in 1942. He was informed on two separate occasions that official records listed his birth date as July 22, 1898. According to the Calder Foundation, he chose to celebrate both dates throughout his life.1