badasscivilwarbeards

[badasscivilwarbeards]

Is that an expanding moustache or are you just happy to see me?

source: Vintage Ephemera

[badasscivilwarbeards]

O Captain, My Captain indeed ;) 

Walt Whitman, c1852. Gosh, he looks such a silver fox here!

[badasscivilwarbeards]

Daily Mirror, England, January 22, 1909 Image © The British Library Board. All Rights Reserved.

[badasscivilwarbeards]

Mr. Biggs

In addition to this super ‘stache, Benjamin T. Biggs grew peaches. 

[badasscivilwarbeards]

Striking Gold

Samuel Thomas Hauser was a banker and territorial governor of Montana who helped campaign for the preservation of Yellowstone. And, much like the national park, his beard is a National Treasure. 

[badasscivilwarbeards]

Elementary

This picture of William Watson is messed up, but even that can’t detract from his magnificent mustache,

[badasscivilwarbeards]

[badasscivilwarbeards]

Marvil Comics

Joshua Marvil’s goatee is so Marvil-ous. 

[badasscivilwarbeards]

Platt That

Benjamin Platt Carpenter has whittled a lovely little soul patch for himself. 

[badasscivilwarbeards]

Adding and Subtracting

John Edward Charles O'Sullivan Addicks has a long name and an even longer mustache.

[badasscivilwarbeards]

Flesh-Colored Beard

Anthony Higgins has an unfortunate case of what Joel McHale of The Soup would call “flesh-colored beard.”

[badasscivilwarbeards]

“Seeing” the Gettysburg Address

On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln gave a speech at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The featured speaker at the event was the politician and orator Edward Everett, but the dedication organizers had asked Lincoln to make “a few appropriate remarks.” Everett spoke for two hours. Lincoln spoke for two minutes. Everett’s 13,607-word oration is largely forgotten. But the 271 words of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address have come to be one of the most eloquent and important speeches in American history.

In the 155 years since Lincoln delivered his address, generations of Americans have sought to picture the event—to “see” the president deliver his famous address. There are no photographs of Lincoln on the speakers’ platform, so artists have tried to imagine and portray the scene. These are examples from the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection.

Despite the statement in the upper left, the image on this postcard is not from an “original photograph of President Lincoln delivering his immortal address.” It is a reproduction of a watercolor by Joseph Boggs Beale (1841-1926). Beale shows Lincoln with arms spread, as though appealing to the crowd. The painting was one of a series of twelve Beale created and published in 1898 illustrating the life of Abraham Lincoln.

This hand-colored lithograph by A. I. Keller based on Beale’s painting was published by Harper’s Weekly in 1900. Publication in Harper’s would have given the image a large public audience.

Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863-1930) created this painting of a strangely uncertain Lincoln on the Gettysburg speakers’ platform. Lincoln’s address text lies forgotten on the stage at his feet, Secretary of State William Seward sits impassively on the left, and Everett appears to be leaving on the right. Ferris is best known for his series of 78 scenes from American history titled The Pageant of a Nation. He is not known for historical accuracy, which might explain why the women behind Lincoln are in summer attire, not appropriate for November in Pennsylvania.

In 1934, the Lincoln Life Insurance Company commissioned artist Leone Bracker (1885-1937) to create charcoal drawings of major events in Abraham Lincoln’s life to use in the company’s advertising campaigns. This drawing of Lincoln at Gettysburg was one of them. Bracker’s Lincoln speaks to the crowd of soldiers and civilians in front of him while ghostly images of the battle itself loom behind him.

Norman Rockwell’s (1894-1978) illustration shows Lincoln from the audience’s perspective. The president stands reading his speech from the small piece of paper in his hand. Everett is pictured seated behind Lincoln, holding a sizable roll of papers on which is written his own speech.

In his “Lincoln at Gettysburg,” Louis Bonhajo (1885-1970) also portrays Lincoln as his listeners would have seen him. The president looks down from the speakers’ platform, perhaps after speaking, holding the text of his speech at his side.

In 1974, Ohio artist and Lincoln collector Lloyd Ostendorf (1921-2000) created “Lincoln at Gettysburg.” As earlier artists had done, Ostendorf shows Lincoln from the listeners’ perspective as the president reads his remarks. Everett sits behind him on the right.

Despite artists’ best imaginative efforts, we do not know how the scene unfolded as Lincoln stood on the speakers’ platform and delivered his most famous address. The scene, however, will always be secondary to what Lincoln said that day.

[badasscivilwarbeards]

Neutral Colors

George Gray’s mustache definitely isn’t neutral. 

[badasscivilwarbeards]

Saulsbury Hill

Willard Saulsbury was a U.S, senator who did NOT like Abraham Lincoln. He drunkenly attempted to prevent a vote sustaining Lincoln’s suspension of writ of habeus corpus, ranting about Lincoln and brandishing a revolver when the sergeant-at-arms tried to escort him out.

[badasscivilwarbeards]

Fishing for Facial Hair

George P. Fisher was nominated by Lincoln to serve as a judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. In this role, he presided over the trial of John Surratt, one of the conspirators of Lincoln’s assassination. 

[badasscivilwarbeards]

Riddle Me This

The riddle of George R. Riddle’s facial hair is, “Why would anyone grow facial hair like this?”

[badasscivilwarbeards]

John Simms, Civil War veteran of the 5th USCT wearing a Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) ribbon.

68.31.48 John Simms Co I 5th U.S. C.I by Massillon Museum Via Flickr: GAR Portraits taken by J.C. Haring, Massillon, Ohio