By Jo Ann Gardner
The Historical Society of Cecil County’s next exhibit, “Historic Threads 150 years of Clothing and Accessories and the Stories that Bind them”, will not just feature women’s fashions, but also on men’s facial hair thorough the decades. The exhibit will examine the rise and fall of men’s beards. Our curator, Lisa Dolor scoured the photo archives of the Historical Society to find examples of fashionable men sporting fashionable beards.
To quote Leah Price of the New York Times, “Mustachioed hipsters may be happy to learn that facial hair spent the first half of the 19th century as the marker of rabble-rousers, artists and derelicts. It was only when the Crimean War veterans (1853-1856) set the fashion that experts began recommending beards to ward off frostbite, sunburn and air pollution, not to mention mumps, and toothache. A beard could also hide a man’s unmanly expressions and emotions.”
The 1860’s began the popularity of the “big beards” in the United States. Men copied the leaders of the time, Lincoln, Grant, Lee and Sherman all sported beards and who can forget General Burnsides classic sideburns. The long beards and sideburns remained a popular fashion statement from 1850-1880 followed by the mustache craze; handlebar, horseshoe, pencil and imperial to name a few. The World Wars brought an end to beards as gas masks required men to be clean shaven. The clean shaven look remained popular until the 1970’s when the mustache came back into fashion. Today the beard has made a great comeback, with men sporting classic looks.
There is a connection between men’s beards and women’s fashions in a study published in The Atlantic, Jane Richardson and Alfred Kroeber found a direct correlation between the size of the beard and with width of women’s dresses. If you look back Civil War era photographs, this is evident. Men’s beards were grand and women wore the wide hoop skirts. Luckily with the return of the beard in the 21st century, hoop skirts have not come back into fashion.
The Cecil Democrat published its own opinion of the beard in January of 1879.
“The Beard”
Not many years ago it was hardly respectable to wear a beard, but the beard movement, resisted and ridiculed at first, has conquered, and it grows more and more the fashion to grow on the face as full a covering of hairs as can be coaxed out. “The beard,” the natural clothing of the chin, says a very old English writer, “was in ancient times looked upon not as a troublesome burden, but as a dignified ornament of ripe manhood and old age.” Our present generation, however, cares nothing for “dignified ornament” in dress, but very much for convenience and utilitarianism. It sees in the beard and, above all, in the moustache, a natural defense for the throat and face against the cold, and equally in warm climates a protection of these parts against excessive heat. Persons who wear mustachios are said, on good authority, to be less liable to toothache than others, and it is also said that the teeth are less apt to decay.
The beard and moustache equalize the temperature to parts they cover with their protection. The sappers and miners of the French army, chosen in part for the size and beauty of their beards, enjoy especial immunity against bronchitis and similar evils. It is related that Walter Savage Landor was a great sufferer from sore throat for many years of his life, but was cured by the surgeon of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who advised him to let his beard grow.”
Beards fell out of fashion by the late 19th, century when the germ theory of disease was discovered and doctors felt that diseases such as TB were being spread by kissing a man with a beard, and recommend shaving them off for public health. The argument over disease and beards is still going on today with both sides still disagreeing over the hygiene of beards.
Stop by the Historical Society of Cecil County see our fine display of local beards, especially if you are sporting one yourself. Admission is free… and feel free to show up in your favorite historic threads!