Home » About » Blog » “Whiskers of National Reputation”: Recognizing the Beard of Moses Purnell Handy

“Whiskers of National Reputation”: Recognizing the Beard of Moses Purnell Handy

by | Sep 6, 2025 | Collections, Graphics, Manuscripts

By Cheney J. Schopieray for his friend David Johnson, who was a hairsbreadth away from trekking to Alaska for the 2009 World Beard and Moustache Championships.

On this World Beard Day, the Clements Library would like to doff its cap in recognition of the beard of Moses P. Handy (1847-1898).

Hubert Vos, [Portrait of Moses P. Handy], Chicago, 1893, oil on canvas, 48.9 cm x 38.8 cm (29.25 in x 15.25 in.), Handy Family Papers, William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan. The Dutch painter Hubert Vos (1855-1935) was in charge of the Exposition of Dutch paintings at the Columbian Exposition. He presented this portrait as a “token of friendship & esteem” to M.P. Handy while at the fair.

Oil painting of Moses P. Handy.
Moses Handy spent around 33 years as a journalist, syndicated columnist, and newspaper editor, working for an array of papers in Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. He had ample opportunity to bolster his wide network as president of the Philadelphia-based Clover Club, a men’s club composed of journalists, writers, publishers, politicians, artists, and lawyers. The club met for annual extravagant dinners and verbal “roasts” of the famous. Today, Moses Handy is perhaps best known for his work as Chief of the Department of Publicity and Promotion for the World’s Columbian Exposition/World’s Fair of 1893. His contributions to securing Chicago as the site of the exposition, pursuing financial support, and publicizing the event were significant to the creation and success of the famed White City1.
Chicago Daily News branded envelope with a pen and ink illustration of the back of Moses P. Handy's head, showing his beard sticking out on either side of his face.

Eugene Field, [Mail Art], December 4, 1884, Handy Family Papers, William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan. Moses P. Handy’s beard made him a quickly recognizable visage, even from behind. Handy’s friend, Chicago poet laureate Eugene Field (1850-1895), sent this illustrated envelope though the post–not addressed to Handy by name but instead to an illustration of his beard in Philadelphia. Field created the mail art by pasting a printed cut-out of a bowler hat and drawing Handy beneath with red and black ink. The envelope and its contents arrived beneath the destination whiskers in the evening of December 5, 1884.

Among his contemporaries, Moses Handy’s beard was described in many ways, often as side-whiskers or sideburns (the latter term coined after Gen. Ambrose Burnside’s famous partial beard). But Handy’s visage was especially affecting. Into the 1870s, he tended to wear sideburns and keep a smooth chin, but by the 1880s expanded to a full growth. Before lauding Handy’s mental faculties and effective communication styles, the Clover Club addressed his facial hair, calling them irreverently “Lug’s,” “Siders,” and “Piccadilly Weepers.”2 In Pioneers of Promotion (University of Oklahoma Press, 2018), marketing historian Joe Dobrow wrote:
“Handy was instantly recognizable wherever he went . . . because of his whiskers, which shot out in two triangular briar patches at acute angles from his left and right jowls, framing his otherwise narrow face in a most unusual way, even for a hirsute age. They seemingly had their own following. Several cartoon caricatures of Handy and his facial hair graced the newspapers. The New York Times described them as ‘flaming red’ and . . . the Hamilton (Ohio) Daily Democrat called them ‘whiskers of national reputation.'”
Cartoon illustration of Moses P. Handy next to a small stick figure. Handy's beard is very exaggerated. "One seat, please."
Cartoon illustration of Moses P. Handy with a small stick figure standing on his beard. Handy's beard is very exaggerated. "Two seats, please."
Cartoon illustration of an exasperated Moses P. Handy with a small stick figure climbing his beard. Handy's beard is very exaggerated. "Three seats, please"
Cartoon illustration of a very exasperated Moses P. Handy with a small stick figure climbing on his head. Handy's beard is very exaggerated. "Four seats, please"

Charles Lederer Sketches and Cartoon Illustration, Chicago, [circa October 1892?], Handy Family Papers, William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan. With the wit and hyperbole of a skilled editorial cartoonist, Charles Lederer (1856-1925) of the Chicago Herald produced a series of storyboard sketches showing an increasingly frustrated ticket seller ascending Moses P. Handy’s left sideburn. In the end, with the seller jumping up and down atop his head, it appears that Handy required four tickets: two for invites, one for himself, and one for his beard. A final drawing shows Moses Handy as head of the “Bureau of Whiskers and Promotion Commotion” being punched or, seemingly, grabbed/pulled by the beard–a particularly vicious assertion of disrespect. Though undated, this series was likely created during the World’s Fair dedicatory addresses circa 1892, when Handy was head of the Department of Publicity and Promotion and William T. Baker (depicted on Handy’s medal, First President of the Columbian Exposition.)

Satirical cartoon depicting someone pulling Moses P. Handy's beard. Handy is shown wearing a "Baker" pin and is standing in front of a sign that reads "Bureau of Whiskers and Commotion" with the word "Promotion" crossed out.
In current parlance, Moses Handy’s early facial hair configuration might be considered “friendly sideburns” or “friendly mutton chops,” with the specifier “friendly” indicating the presence of a mustache. His later configuration was a full beard. In more formal terms, projecting backward the categorizations established in the By-Laws of the World Beard and Moustache Association,3 Moses Handy wore his early partial beard as “Sideburns Natural” (any naturally-grown beard lacking chin hair) and later as “Full Beard Natural” (a naturally-grown beard without style aids or attention drawn to the mustache).

Whatever the prevailing beard taxonomy, Moses Purnell Handy’s facial hair was as memorable then as it is now. For more on Moses P. Handy’s life and activities, as well as the lives of several generations of his extraordinary family, please see the Handy Family Papers, 1670s-1980s, Finding Aid.4

Photograph of Moses P. Handy sitting at a writing desk.
Photograph of Moses P. Handy at his desk, undated and unattributed, Handy Family Papers, William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan. This photograph of Moses P. Handy’s beard from the side belies its splendor, but offers a fine view of the gentleman’s office/writing desk. The beard’s distinct shape and reddish hue are hidden from the viewers’ eyes by the photographer’s angle and the lack of color.

1 See Joe Dobrow, Pioneers of Promotion (University of Oklahoma Press, 2018), for a study of Moses Handy’s place in the foundational history of modern marketing.

2 Mary R. Deacon, The Clover Club of Philadelphia (Philadelphia: Avil Printing Company, 1897): 234.

3 Bylaws of the World Beard and Moustache Association, appendix C (approved July 11, 2023): 19-20. https://www.worldbeardandmoustacheassociation.org/bylaws. Accessed September 4, 2025.

4 See also John C. Dann, “Newspaper Celebrities” in The Quarto 24 (Fall-Winter 2005): 9-10. In this issue of the Clements Library’s semi-annual publication, the articles centered on the memory of NYC artist/poet and longtime Clements Library editor staff member John C. Harriman (1940-2005), who contributed interest and labor toward the publication of the Handy family genealogy: Isaac W. K. Handy; eds. Mildred Handy Ritchie and Sarah Rozelle Handy Mallon, Annals and Memorials of the Handys and their Kindred, Ann Arbor, Mich.: William L. Clements Library, 1992.