Post by Jayne Ptolemy, Reading Room Supervisor
In honor of the upcoming celebration of World Beard Day on Saturday, September 7, Clements Library offers up this small sampling of the luxuriant beards found in our extensive Graphics Division. For example, amidst the thousands of photographs in the David V. Tinder Cabinet Card Photograph Collection, one can find beards of every type.
We have pious beards and devilish beards.
We have fancy beards and full beards.
We have partial beards and people who wish they had any beard at all.
We have beards to make a barber quiver and quake!
While exploring our Graphics Division’s collection of photographs and prints, you’ll see these beards and many more, all bearing witness to the glorious history of facial hair in America and giving you a glimpse into changing fashions and definitions of gender. And don’t even get us started on the mustaches …