Get Connected

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"498","attributes":{"alt":"Ebenezer Wallen Sheppard","class":"media-image","style":"width: 200px; height: 276px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px;","title":"Ebenezer Wallen Sheppard","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]If you've enjoyed our recent digital exhibit -- Moustaches, Muttonchops, and Beards -- you might also like the selection of photographs featured in the Mass. State Library's gallery "A Celebration of Facial Hair Trends in the Legislature" on Flickr. If you need a bit more convincing, take a look at their blog entry on the topic from last fall:

Changes in facial hair styles have a long history, and until recently were primarily guided by the ruling monarch or clergy, some even specifying in law or edict which class of men should shave and which should grow their beards. ... Members of the Massachusetts legislature did not escape these trends. For example, in the 1880 House of Representatives photograph album, 230 of the 244 representatives pictured wear some sort of facial hair!

If you haven't voted for your favorite Congregationalist in our exhibit yet, go on over and do that first! Then peruse the lawmakers who lived alongside them.

--Robin