BEARDED PRESIDENTS The majority of men who have held the office of President of the United States have been clean shaven, including the Founding Fathers.[1] Between 1861 and 1913, however, all but two presidents wore either beards or mustaches during their tenure in office. John Quincy Adams (1825–29) was the first U.S. President to have notable facial hair, with long sideburns.[2] But the first major departure from the tradition of smooth-faced chief executives was Abraham Lincoln (1861–65),[3][4][5] who was supposedly (and famously) influenced by 11-year old Grace Bedell to start growing a beard shortly before he was elected.[6][7] After Lincoln, all but two presidents over the next 50 years sported facial hair, the exceptions being Andrew Johnson (1865–69) and William McKinley (1897–1901).[8] The most recent president to have facial hair was William Howard Taft (1909–1913), who wore a mustache.[9][10][11][12][13] The last major party candidate to wear a beard was Charles Evans Hughes, who was defeated in 1916.[14] The last major party candidate for President to have facial hair was Thomas E. Dewey, who had a mustache, in 1944 and 1948.[15][16] Some pundits even claimed that public disapproval of Deweys mustache contributed to his two electoral defeats.[17][18][19][20] Social scientists have researched the effect of facial hair on the electability of Presidential candidates, and currently consider facial hair to have a negative effect on candidates.[10][21][22] Today, the existence of facial hair on potential presidential candidates is regularly noted (albeit somewhat jokingly) as a harmful factor.[23][24] Following is a list of American presidents who had facial hair at any time during their tenure.[25]
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 18:49:53 +0000
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