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Ah, the 19th century and its love of creative cheek and chin “coiffures”. I must give credit to the popular Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century blog, where I originally got the idea to go poking around in our carte de visite’s for facial hair aficionados of the 1800’s. As you can see, I was not disappointed. Our collection yielded stellar examples of the “Faceshelf” (upper left) and the “Facespanner” (upper right) as well as an assortment of extraordinary beards and goatees.
You might recognize some of our hairy gentlemen from the Confederate army: (top, r-l) Major General John C. Breckenridge, Brigadier General James E. Rains, Major H. B. McClellan (bottom, r-l) Rev. William S. Pluwer (non-military), unknown, Brigadier General Fitzhugh Lee (nephew of Robert E. Lee).
Feel free to stop by the Special Collections to view more of these 19th century wonders!