Century of the Beard

In Russia, beard grows you

2012-02-12T12:16:00.000-08:00

Some beards defy classification.Some are merely difficult to define because of the limitations of technology and time. For example, this Russian gentleman has some spectacular mutton chops.

Or are they?

Do those amazing wings growing on each side of his chin connect to his hairline with sideburns? If so, then these are mutton chops. If they also connect to the mustache then they are a subset of mutton chops called friendly mutton chops.

But what if they don't connect to his hair in front of his ears? What if the upper part of the cheeks where sideburns would go is clean shaven? It's difficult to tell from this photograph. If so, it might be classified as a hollywoodian except for the chin being clean shaven.

And what if the beard is not actually connected to the mustache. I can't even begin to determine how to classify that. "Freestyle" seems to be the convention in the modern taxonomy.

And the entirety of this confusion comes from the photograph. Were this gentleman standing before me, it would be easy to tell where there was hair and where there was not. It may be a little more difficult to classify but at least we would have a starting point

So, for simplicity, I shall declare that there is, in fact, hair in front of the ears and the mustache is connected to the beard, therefore: friendly mutton chops.

Cowlick

2012-02-04T15:37:00.000-08:00

Oh, yea. He knows absolutely that he has it going on. From the assertive smirk to the massive shirt pin, from the goatee on his chin to the spectacular cowlick atop his head.

This man could probably not only convince you that the moon was made of a specific variation of cheese (similar to a North Wiltshire blue) but could also convince you to invest substantial funds in his soon-to-be-constructed cheese mine.

Chook chooka.

Jealous

2012-01-15T10:27:00.000-08:00

"Have you ever seen so full and mighty a beard as this?"

Of course you haven't, because this is Sir Sanford Fleming, inventor of time!

OK, so he isn't a Time Lord and didn't actually invent time itself but he was instrumental in convening the International Prime Meridian Conference in Washington in 1884 and the subsequent establishment of global universal time. You see, it works like this: Local time is set by the sun. Noon when it reaches it's zenith. But move 20 miles west and the sun will reach it's zenith a little under 2 minutes later. Not a big deal when you can walk that far in a day but when you ride a train for a day, those miles and minutes can add up to a significant difference. There's a lot of math to be done to get the time correct and then everyone has to do it right, from the train conductor to the guy who sets the town clock tower and if those things don't match up, connections get missed, people are late and all of society breaks down into chaos and general panic.

Additionally, there's that pesky A.M. and P.M. thing. Fleming spent an uncomfortable night in a train station in Ireland because the schedule mixed those two things up. Fleming proposed both the 24 hour universal time clock and the standardized 24 hour time zones so that no one would have to muss their magnificent beards sleeping on a hard, wooden bench in a drafty station ever again. (At least, not because of time miscalculations. )

Thus, civilization was saved.

Bellingham’s Stimulating Onguent

2012-01-07T13:23:00.000-08:00

Mad Doctor

2011-12-31T10:25:00.000-08:00

"Mad" angry or "mad" crazy? Either way, I would not want this man as my physician.

He does, however, have a distinctive and impressive beard, so that should count for something.

The First Steampunk

2011-12-24T09:17:00.001-08:00

The gears of progress are driven by inherently dangerous mechanical contraptions that often emit fine particulates and occasional high-velocity shrapnel so it is imperative that one wear sufficient ocular protective devices at all times so as to avoid unnecessary injury and inconvenient diminishment of vision.

And this gentleman is totally rocking the mad scientist vibe.

Definition

2011-08-24T10:24:00.000-07:00

When I say the word "goatee", what springs to your mind? The mirror universe Mr. Spock from Star Trek? Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon? Perhaps you are thinking of Captain Jack Sparrow.

You would be incorrect for those beards are not goatees, though the modern media and contemporary colloquialism keeps calling them that. No, having a beard and mustache around your mouth not connected to sideburns is not a goatee.

This, my friends, is a goatee. A quintessential example of "a beard formed by hair grown only on the chin area." Add a mustache to the equation and, by definition, it is no longer a goatee.

So, now that today's lesson is over and you know what actually constitutes goatee, when someone says the word you will not embarass yourself by thinking of Tony Stark, you will be thinking of Norville Rogers.

Steampunk World's Fair

2011-05-25T18:24:00.000-07:00

Entrants in the General G. Rappleyea Memorial Beard and Mustache Competition of the 2011 Steampunk World's Fair, Somerset, New Jersey. There were many more competitors this year and some grew out their beards specifically for this event. Huzzah!

The Greatest Generation

2011-05-10T16:41:00.000-07:00

The Smithsonian (courtesy of the fine pogonologists at Wondermark) announces a contest for “Who Had the Best Civil War Facial Hair?”

Vote Here!

Four Brothers

2011-04-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

Daniel, George (with the beard), Michael and my great-grandfather Elder John.

Shave for Honor

2011-03-15T15:30:00.000-07:00

Brigham Young was a man's man. He founded his own de-facto nation in Utah. He was said to have the power of God. He sanctioned the massacre of pioneers. He was a world class bigot. He wore magic underwear. He may have been a delusional religious tyrant but, with 55 wives and nearly as many children, no one could doubt his bearded virility.

So, it is with some irony that the Mormon university founded with his name has beardlessness as a part of it's student code of honor. To violate this code is to be removed forthwith. Brigham Young would be expelled from his own university for violating the honor code.

There are exceptions, however. One is permitted to grow a beard with a medical exemption from university doctors.

A student who wishes to obtain a beard exception must visit a BYU Student Health Center doctor by appointment (422.5156). The doctor will fax his recommendation. The student then needs to come to the Honor Code Office to fill out some paperwork and receive the letter allowing the growth of the beard, if approved. If a yearly beard exception is granted, a new Student ID will be issued after the beard has been fully grown, and must be renewed every year by repeating the process.

If a request is granted for a temporary or more permanent beard exception the student will be notified by the Honor Code Office; at which time the student will come into the office to complete the necessary paperwork. After completion of this process the student may then grow a full beard according to the guidelines given.

Wearing a beard is dishonorable? Heresy! Sacrilege! Sure, BYU bans sex, swearing, plagarism and shorts or skirts above the knee, which shouldn't be surprising for a religious university, but beards? And tea! Can you believe that they ban tea as being somehow unwholesome?

That's just not civilized.

Adaptable

2011-03-05T15:47:00.000-08:00

One of the (many) advantages of having a longer beard or moustache is that of styling. Men with close cropped beads have no oppotunity for variation short of shaving and then they are caught within that particular style until the follicles grow back out.

But a man with longer bears can move the hairs this way or that to elicit a particular effect. I give you Frederick III, at this time in 1870 the crown prince of Prussia and later to serve as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Many of the paintings and photographs that I have seen of his royal majesty present him with a somewhat conventional beard. I have seen others where the beard is somewhat split in the middle, slightly less conventional but nothing too dramatic.

But here, he has taken the comb from the center of the chin and drawn it horizontally, in some ways extending the horizontal pull of the moustache down across the chin.

Spectacular.

It may perhaps have been effected for a practical purpose of revealing the medal at his throat rather than having it concealed by a vertically combed beard.

I like to think it was more than that.

Not a fool

2011-02-20T11:20:00.000-08:00

I have been cultivating my beard for quite a number of years and, while I have been inspired by the beards of over a century ago, I have endeavored to be somewhat unique in its styling. And yet, I continued to search archives in hopes of finding someone else who shared a similar beard so that I could make the claim that my beard was, in point of fact, period. So many beards and yet none that I could point to and say, "See! men of culture and style really do have such beards as this."

And here I find one that seems to add to that claim. This gentleman's beard is a circle beard but with some enhancements, specifically the moustache separated from the beard by being styled straight out and, even more unique, the "horns" on the beard trimmed to the center of the chin. Not an exact match to my beard, mind you, but certainly similar enough to be considered in the same taxonomy.

Culture. Style and the adoring gaze of his loving wife. And observe that she is gazing upon his fine beard. OK. So maybe she's actually looking at the sheet music but that is only for this illustration. Surely she must approve of both him and his beard all the other days of their lives. No fool he.

Unfortunately, I do not like wine so more the fool am I.

Taking stock

2011-02-08T15:36:00.000-08:00

When the father discovered that his son was writing rather than studying law, he promptly withdrew his financial support. The young aspiring author was forced to support himself as a stockbroker, which he hated despite being somewhat successful at it. Even so, he persevered and became on of the most influential writers of the 19th Century.

This is, of course, Jules Verne at the age of 28 before he hit the big time, born this day in 1828.

A Chance Meeting

2011-02-05T13:59:00.000-08:00

Photographers Abel J. Whalen and Abel J. Whalen both pose for a picture of themselves and their beards. Beards were not a novelty in the early days of photography but multiple exposures allow one the unique opportunity to see both profiles of a beard simultaneously.

Flattery

2011-01-29T23:30:00.000-08:00

After a panel at an Ohio convention, an attendee came up to me and said:

"When my beard grows up, it wants to be just like yours."

I was, of course, flattered. And while I do not have what I consider to be an epic beard, one worthy of international accolades in the arena of competition, I am quite proud of my facial adornment and pleased that inspires others.

And yet, I am slightly hesitant. I have spent years cultivating a beard which I think is unique and would be sorely disappointed should someone choose to imitate my particular style.

So, allow the Century of the Beard to inspire you in finding your own path.The men featured here certainly did not mimic or parrot those around them. Nor should you.

Professor Modevi’s Beard Generator

2011-01-19T16:35:00.000-08:00

Pitty the poor man who lacks the follicles to grow himself a beard as he may forever be looked upon as a mere juvenile amongst men. But fear no more, for Professor Modevi's advertisement in The Illustrated Police News of 4 April 1885 announces vast experience in producing a marvelous topical pharmacon that shall bring one's manliness to its fullest of potential. Surely the Victorian equivalent of Rogaine and Enzyte concocted into a single elixir.

Octo-beard

2010-07-13T17:18:00.000-07:00

There are those who clearly believe you cannot have too much of a good thing. Especially when that good thing happens to be you. Painter. Photographer. Sculptor. Man with a beard.

Which, through an only slightly disjointed sequence of related thoughts, leads me to the question: If there were more than one of you, would each have the same beard? Would the collective you take the opportunity to wear a variety of beards and perhaps experiment with an assortment of facial adornments or do you, like this man, feel that your beard is already your ideal and worthy of being duplicated exactly?

What would you do?

What would you do?

Big Hairy Deal

2010-05-22T16:51:00.001-07:00

Last week, I had the distinct pleasure of attending the first Steampunk World's Fair in Piscataway, New Jersey. Being steampunk, there were plenty of fine, Victorian beards on display. There were plenty of things that pass for beards in the Twenty-first Century as well. To separate the metal from the dross, there was held an Epic Bear and Moustache Competition.

It was my first experience with entering myself and my beard into such a thing and I am humbled that so many people had such a difficult time choosing between me and the man who ultimately won the grand prize through his astronomical skill at the sport of rochambeau. Truly, his moustache, which stood a full five inches out from his face and from which he had scurrilously cut an additional four inches before coming to the event, was fully worthy of all accolades.

Observe the competition.

There were only a half dozen or so to enter the competition but this should in no way diminish the very fine facial adornments that wereto be found elsewhere throughout the convention. Many beards and moustaches of all classes and vareties were to be seen in the halls of the hotel, though I will note a higher percentage of friendly mutton chops than perhaps any other style as it would seem that the chops are seen a century later as somewhat indicative of the period.

I wonder if there was ever any sort of statistical analysis made of the prevelance of particular styles of beards at the end of the 19th Century.

Next week, I attend the World Steam Expo, another opportunity to witness the revival of the nearly lost art of pogontrophy.

Super chops

2010-05-09T18:13:00.000-07:00

Behold, all ye of thin and scraggly facial adornment! Base ruffians! Poseurs! Girly men! Despair, those who have not shaved for the week, exfoliated their chins and dared called the result mutton chops. These! These are the chops of a super hero!

Mr. George West

2010-05-02T18:03:00.000-07:00

Though last week's gentleman was fine looking, the mutton chops worn by Mr. West of San Francisco seem better realized. I believe it has much to do with the consistent continuity across the entirety of the beard. A magnificent piece of work.

Friendly Mutton Chops

2010-04-25T17:54:00.000-07:00

Friendly mutton chops are a chops and mustache combination, friendly because they meet in the middle. This Minnesotan might have settled with only a mustache and, with his clean good looks, would have turned many a lady's head. But he chose not only mutton chops but an exceptional set of mutton chops, ensuring that all heads will turn.

Wide chops

2010-04-18T17:40:00.000-07:00

These mutton chops seem ready to lift the wearer far above the mundane world. I dream of having a beard like this.

Bostonian

2010-04-11T17:32:00.000-07:00

Now these are some mutton chops to be proud of. This distinguished gentleman has clearly spent quite a number of years with this style of beard. Yet, that is not all. His expression clearly speaks to his forward thinking and confidence that his beard style will be long remembered.

ˈmə-tən-ˌchäps

2010-04-06T17:01:00.000-07:00

Sideburns are one thing but mutton chops are something much, much more. Of course, you couldn't tell by the examples that parade around today that dare call themselves mutton chops. Barren shadows of a once magnificent history.

Case in point, the popular character of graphic novella and kinetoscope, Wolverine. (I will not sully this fine company with a tintype of of his anemic beard.) While he is assuredly overflowing with manly vim and vigor, his so-called mutton chops look as if he has merely neglected to shave for a week or so. Is this what passes for mutton chops in this century?

Poppycock! The New Yorker herin presented has mutton chops to be proud of. And what's more, in the following weeks I will present even more impressive examples by men who truly have "The Chops."

Rake

2010-03-13T18:23:00.000-08:00

Being such a rakish style of beard, one would think to find more examples of the famous Van Dyke. Alas, photographic examples have been notoriously difficult to come by. But we must thank the State of Ohio yet again for another fine gentleman with a fine beard.

All the better to hear you with

2010-03-06T13:26:00.000-08:00

The neckbeard is an interesting adornment in that the wearer takes the care to shave the sensitive cheeks and the challenging edges above the lip and along the jawline but grows the beard on the neck, perhaps the easiest place to shave. He has obviously chosen this look specifically and not merely grown a beard out of some distaste for the act of shaving.

Contemporary commentary on the neckbeard derisively implies that "nerds" choose this style to conceal a double or weak chin but an investigation of cabinet cards form the Century of the Beard shows no such correlation. I can't speculate on the actual reasons for choosing the neckbeard but these gentlemen of the late 19th Century had clearly not chosen it to conceal obesity and they were most assuredly not "nerds".

I conjecture that those who heap such scorn upon the neckbeard only wish they could be manly enough to grow such an accessory and still retain the dignity of the Ohioan pictured here.

But, on a completely unrelated note. . . what is it with Ohioans? Last week I posted a picture of a man with a unique pair of eyes, this man has himself some impressive ears. But, again, this man has chosen the neckbeard when some nice sideburns might have diminished their prominence. He is clearly proud of his ears and his beard.

The eyes of Ohio are upon you

2010-02-28T13:32:00.000-08:00

One can't help but wonder what it is about this Ohioan's eyes. I know, this site is all about the beards,and I will agree that this man has a mighty fine circle beard, one whose magnificence I hope to emulate in my later years, but my attention can't help but be drawn to his mismatched eyes.

The one more open than the other; is it simply a matter of the muscles of his eyelids? Is he reacting to a difference in lighting? They do not seem to be focused on the same point in space. Could one of them be glass? Look at each one separately and they seem full of life and so, based on no evidence whatsoever, I conclude that his eyelids are merely different.

Evolution of the Beard

2009-11-24T07:53:00.000-08:00

When Charles Darwin was a younger man, he did not yet have the full, iconic beard he is generally known for. Instead, he had some mighty fine sideburns. And even as the years rolled by, his theory of evolution developed and his hairline receded, he still maintained only the sideburns.

But, while ill in 1862, he underwent a change that might be considered a form of punctuated equilibrium, and began growing a full beard. By the time he reappeared in public in 1866, it was full and powerful and even though he still had merely the sideburns when he published "On the Origin of Species" in 1859, one hundred and fifty years later the image that is used on the back cover of all subsequent reprints and the vision that leaps to our mind's eye whenever someone mentions the name of Charles Darwin, is as he looked with a fully evolved beard.

So great was his beard, one of the most famous beards in history, that the Natural History Museum in London displayed a lock of it in celebration of his 200th birthday.

No, really.

Working on the Railroad

2008-10-06T16:52:00.000-07:00

William McCreery, a Washington County native, entered the railroad business around the time of the Civil War, building and running the Ashtabula, Youngstown and Pittsburg Railroad (AY&P), which was eventually leased by the Pennsylvania Railroad. After a disagreement with the PRR, McCreery resigned and built a competative railroad that became the Pittsburg & Lake Erie Railroad (P&LE). By the time he completed his 33rd year in business, he had built seven railway lines and held the presidency in four of them.

McCreery was also Chairman of Pittsburgh's Relief Committee for victims of the Johnstown Flood, on the board of directors for the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, was one of the organizers of Allegheny General Hospital and also worked on the Pittsburgh Association for the Relief of the Poor.

It's difficult to tell from this many time over copied photograph but it looks like Mr. McCreery has a slight smile accentuated by slight curve on the ends of his mustache. A railroad magnate who gave back to the community would certainly have something to smile about.

Engineering a City

2008-09-10T13:39:00.000-07:00

Even though a Pennsylvania native, Alexander Hays lived in the City of Allegheny for less than a decade but for that time he was the city's chief engineer and bore responsibility for a number of projects. When the Civil War came, he returned to the military (he had served in the Mexican-American War), leading a charge at the Second Battle of Bull Run and a noted counterattack at Gettysburg. He was killed at the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia and was buried with honors in Allegheny Cemetery in Lawrenceville.

General Hays was widely regarded as a hero by the residents of the City of Allegheny (annexed by the city of Pittsburgh in 1907).When Ulysses S. Grant was campaigning for the presidency, he stopped by the gravesite of his US Military Academy friend and openly wept.

High flyin

2008-08-29T15:10:00.001-07:00

I simply cannot let this photograph go unremarked upon even though it is not actually from the 19th Century. Herein, three fine gentlemen with absolutely spectacular beards are enjoying the spoils of victory in the World Beard and Mustache Championships. The original by dogseat, using the newfangled color-process photography, was modified by Mousewrites into the more vintage and gloriously black and white format you see here.

I am insanely jealous of these gentlemen. Though I am proud of my own beard, it pales to insignificance before their mastery of the art.

It is a great tragedy of the 20th and 21st Centuries that such magnificence has fallen out of fashion yet there is some small comfort that in some small corners of the population a fine tradition of stylish masculinity endures and through the aethertubes, endures for posterity.

Heater

2008-08-24T16:43:00.000-07:00

Loading unfinshed iron bars into a furnace for refinement was a difficult job. One needed to be highly skilled in judging the temperature of the bars and, as such, Adam Hart was one of the best paid workers in the Sligo Iron Works, once located beneath the Smithfield Street Bridge.

One might think that working with one's face near white-hot metal would preclude having a beard. Surely, such extravagance would surely burst into flames or singe away and, while this is a distinct possibility, many workers of metal cultivate full beards. Are they defiantly challenging the fates or is there some other, secret method to their madness?

Beards of Pittsburgh: Andrew Carnegie

2008-08-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the city of Pittsburgh, I will be featuring notable beards and the beards of notables from the Steel City.

The most notable of those notables is, of course, Andrew Carnegie. The teenage Carnegie settled in the city of Allegheny (now Pittsburg's North Side) in 1848. Starting as a telegraph messenger boy in the Pittsburgh Office of the Ohio Telegraph Company, at $2.20 per week he worked his way up to found and command Carnegie Steel Company and become one of the wealthiest men in the world. When Carnegie Steel was sold in 1901, he made $125 million off the deal.

For as much as Carnegie was the industrial heart of Pittsburgh, he also contributed significantly to it's soul. His philanthropy funded some 3,000 libraries, located in 47 states, 19 of them in Pittsburgh. He also founded the Carnegie Institute of Technology (today, Carnegie-Mellon University) and the Carnegie Museum.

"Man does not live by bread alone. I have known millionaires starving for lack of the nutriment which alone can sustain all that is human in man, and I know workmen, and many so-called poor men, who revel in luxuries beyond the power of those millionaires to reach. It is the mind that makes the body rich."

And his beard. . . his finely manicured beard evolved from something fairly mundane into a brilliant and famous white respectability. Many professionally made photographs show a stern demeanor, not unexpected for a multi-national tycoon controlling a massive steel empire, but when he chose to smile, his bead afforded Carnegie a grandfatherly appearance.

Beards of our Forefathers

2008-08-01T15:45:00.000-07:00

David Malki, author of the online comic strip Wondermark, has produced this collection of humor entitled "Beards of our Forefathers". For those who do not know his comic, he takes period illustrations and adds captions and dialogue for humerus purposes. And while there are certainly beards to be found within, such as his marginally useful Pocket Guide to Ancestral Beards and Ironic Facial Hair Citation, he focuses very little upon the actual beards of our forefathers.

This is not to say I was disappointed in his book. Assuredly not. Even without beards and mustaches, the the humor is significant.

Moko and beard

2008-07-13T07:45:00.000-07:00

This 1880 photograph is of a Māori gentleman with a fine beard. Aside from the feathers, this beard is not unlike beards common throughout the more so-called civilized world, proving that beards are in fact universal. (He could stand to have a run through with a comb, however.) It is unfortunate that the beard may not be his own masculine choice. Some Christian missionaries disapproved of Tā moko (facial tattoos) arguing that they were a heathen practice, so some Maori men let their facial hair grow to cover their tattoos.

Mr. Talcott of Hartford

2008-06-17T16:43:00.000-07:00

Clear-eyed Mr. Talcott has a luxurious yet well-managed goatee.

Ambrose Burnside

2008-06-07T08:14:00.000-07:00

It was for American Civil War General Ambrose Everett Burnside, that the term sideburns was derived. Originally, he word burnsides was coined to describe this style. The syllables were later reversed to give sideburns.

Of course, aficionados of facial adornment realize that this particular style of beard already had a name before the Americans came up with the term sideburns in honor of General Burnside. In England, the word mutton chops was first used in 1865 to describe a facial adornment that starts off narrow at the top in front of the ears and widen across the cheek and jawline to the corner of the mouth. When the mutton chops are connected across the face with a mustache, or perhaps described as a full beard with the chin clean shaven, they are called friendly mutton chops. General Burnside has a fine example of friendly mutton chops that became even more distinguished in his later years.

Irish Beard

2008-06-07T08:02:00.000-07:00

While surely not the only reason to cultivate a beard, some men choose to grow a beard to conceal some deficiency or anomaly of the jawline. This gentleman, in sculpting his facial hair as he has, not only has a fine set of mutton chops but also accentuates his manly chin.

Friedrich Schmidt

2008-05-15T17:51:00.000-07:00

The annals of scientific have produced some fine beards; Hippocrates, Pythagoras, Leonardo da Vinci, Charles Darwin, but even those scientists who are less well known have been able to contribute to the art of masculinity.

Take Herr Schmidt, for example. Surely, you have never heard of him but he was academician extraordinarious of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Director of the Mineralogical Museum in St. Petersburg, he received awards from many institutions and societies, the highest being the Wollaston Medal from the Geological Sociey of London in 1890. He was a prolific writer and his publication list numbers more than 200 titles.

I learned of Herr Schmidt and his fine beard while searching the archives for information of trilobites. The Schmidt Trilobite Collection, housed in several museums in St. Petersburg and Moscow, amount to 1408 specimens representing what when he collected them were 255 different species of which 120 were new.

Does he not look filled with the joy of discovery?

Hurrah for Friedrich Schmidt! Hurrah for trilobites! Hurrah for science! Hurrah for beards.

Wheelmen

2008-05-05T15:46:00.001-07:00

Other venues have played on a perceived deep philosophical divide between those gentlemen with only mustaches and those with full beards. It is our assertion that an abundance or dearth of facial hair is part of a broad spectrum of masculinity and there is no reason for the bearded and the beardless not to be friends.

Here then is proof of such comradery. Two fine gentlemen sharing a lunch on a country ride, dressed identically, their matched velocipedes waiting to carry them on their brotherly way once their repast is complete.

Jamestown Gentleman

2008-04-23T17:32:00.000-07:00

Here, then, is a not too closely cropped beard overtopped with a fine mustache. Had he chosen the mustache without the beard or the beard without the mustache he would have lost the gentlemanly effect entirely. No, in this case the one must have the other.

A Man and His Dog

2008-04-18T16:59:00.001-07:00

A fine gentleman and his faithful companion pose before a painted backdrop in a studio. His cheerful expression, highlighted with the cheerful upturn of his mustache is in contrast to the slightly intent expression of his dachshund.

Man w/Beard, ca. 1854-1860

2008-04-08T18:02:00.000-07:00

Here is a right gentleman with a fine beard. And while one might be tempted to think that he was emulating emancipator Abraham Lincoln, in point of fact, this man's facial adornment predates the growth upon Lincoln's chin. Perhaps it was Lincoln who was emulating this man.

Abraham Lincoln

2008-04-02T15:49:00.000-07:00

I begin with a most famous example of what the proprietor of Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century declares “the most foolish of facial hair: the mustacheless beard.”

In the fall of 1860. Abraham Lincoln was the Republican nominee for president of the United States. A lifelong beardless man, he received a letter written by Grace Bedell, an 11-year-old girl from Westfield, New York, wherein she said:

“I have got 4 brother's and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husband's to vote for you and then you would be President. My father is going to vote for you and if I was a man I would vote for you to but I will try to get every one to vote for you that I can I think that rail fence around your picture makes it look very pretty I have got a little baby sister she is nine weeks old and is just as cunning as can be.”

In his personal reply to young Miss Bedell, Mr. Lincoln said:

“As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affection if I were to begin it now?”

Nevertheless, by February 16th 1861, the now president-elect stepped from the train in Westfield, New York, bedecked with his now famous beard, calling out to Miss Bedell that he had indeed, taken her advice.

Lincoln was the first American president to sport a beard and is generally regarded as one of America's finest presidents.

Establishment

2008-04-01T18:24:00.000-07:00

While I have been a frequenter of the Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century establishment and in many ways agree with the proprietor as to the style and manliness of such facial adornments, I fear I must take exception to his rather low opinion of beards. The proprietor often uses descriptives such as “madness” and “shameful.” His posting of the first of April declaring bearded men the “Fools of April” was finally too much for me to continue suffering in silence.

I therefore announce the opening of this establishment; Century of the Beard.

This is, of course, in no way meant to belittle mustaches or the fine menagerie presented by the neighboring Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century. I, too, once had a mustache when I was young and just growing into my identity. But as I matured, I merely found it to be an inadequate expression and evolved into something more substantial. Many other fine gentlemen also took that path less traveled to grow beards, refusing to be deterred by gangs of raucous and clean shaven youths mocking their elders and betters.

I also beg your pardon, gentle readers, in that I do not have the extensive archives of the University of Kentucky at my disposal. I will begin my journey by accessing public sources and perhaps, should providence smile upon me, I shall have opportunity to present new, exotic, mysterious and heretofore unseen beards for previously untapped sources.

Welcome to the Century of the Beard