Robert Bunsen

Robert Bunsen (1811-1899) was a German chemist. In collaboration with Gustav Kirchhoff, he pioneered the development of emission spectroscopy, a technique they used to discover the elements caesium and rubidium. Bunsen's most famous legacy is probably his invention of the Bunsen burner, which remains a standard piece of laboratory equipment in many sciences.

Interestingly, Bunsen's collaborator Kirchhoff also wore a neckbeard. They are pictured together in the photo below, with Kirchhoff on the left:

Alexander Bain

Alexander Bain (1818-1903) was a Scottish philosopher in the empiricist tradition who made major contributions to philosophy of mind and who helped to establish the use of scientific methods in psychology. He is perhaps best known as the founder of the journal Mind, which was originally intended as an interdisciplinary journal of philosophy and psychology, and which remains one of the most highly respected philosophical journals.

Notice that in his later life, Bain wore an interesting variation on the neckbeard style by shaving down the middle.

Neckbeards among the Welsh clergy, 1800s

As far as I can tell, nowhere have neckbeards been more popular than among the 19th century Welsh clergy. Photos of clergymen from around this time show that a high proportion of them wore the neckbeard. Some examples below.

Rev. Jenkins Babell 

Rev. W. Jones 

Rev. A. Williams 

Rev. D. Roberts

Rev. David Hughes 

Rev. John Jones

Lucius Robinson

Lucius Robinson (1810-1891) was an American politician who served as Governor of New York from 1877-1879.

Lajos Kossuth

Lajos Kossuth (1802-1894) was a Hungarian politician who led Hungary's struggle for independence from the Austrian Empire, and served as Governor-President of Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution from 1848-49. After the revolution was quashed by the Austrians and Russians, he was removed from power and left Hungary, though he continued attempting to rally people in support of Hungarian independence. He became famous throughout Europe and the US as an icon of democracy and other liberal values such as freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Today he is considered the father of democracy in Hungary.

How popular were neckbeards in the 1800s?

It's obvious that neckbeards were more popular in the 1800s. But can we quantify just how common they were? To take a first stab at this, I had a look through the vintage photos sold by Tiddalik's Vintage Photography. These include many photos of men from Victorian Britain. I simply counted the total number of men depicted in the photos, and then counted the number of men wearing neckbeards. At the time of writing, the numbers are:

Number of men: 200

Number of men with neckbeards: 19

That's quite remarkable: nearly 10% of the men shown in these photos have neckbeards! Of course, this was not a random sample of British Victorian men; presumably, most of these men will have been fairly rich. Still, it suggests that the neckbeard was once among the most popular beard styles, at least among certain groups of men.

Some good neckbeards from the Tiddalik archives:

James Clyman

James Clyman (1792-1881) was an explorer of the American Far West. He was known for travelling with Jebediah Smith, and for sewing Smith's scalp and ear back on after Smith was mauled by a grizzly bear.

Henry A. Wise

Henry A. Wise (1806-1876) was an American lawyer and politician who served as Governor of Virginia from 1856-1860. He was one of the most prominent advocates of the secession of Virginia from the U.S. during the year before the American Civil War.

James D. Williams

James D. Williams (1808-1880) was an American politician who served in Indiana for four decades, and was elected Governor of Indiana from 1877 until his death. Born into a farming family, he was known for his advocacy of agriculture. He used his farming background to create a public image of himself as a rural "man of the people", earning himself the nickname "Blue Jeans Bill".

George Alexander Macfarren

George Alexander Macfarren (1813-1887) was an English composer and musicologist. Throughout his life he suffered poor health, including poor eyesight that eventually progressed to complete blindness. He was appointed a professor at the Royal Academy of Music, though he resigned after a decade after his somewhat unconventional views on music theory put him at odds with the rest of the Academy.

Thomas Jessop

Thomas Jessop (1804-1887) was a steelmaker who served as Mayor of Sheffield, UK from 1863-1864. During his time as Mayor he had to deal with the consequences of the Great Sheffield Flood, one of the worst disasters to hit the city, killing at least 240 people and destroying hundreds of houses.

William Notman

William Notman (1826-1891) was a Canadian photographer who established branches throughout Canada and the United States and became internationally famous for his artistic compositions and mastery of a range of photographic techniques. He pioneered composite photography, creating large, intricate group portraits by photographing each figure separately, then pasting them against a painted background.

Flag of the Neckbeard Society

Here is my design for a flag of the Neckbeard Society. The central symbol is of course a simplified depiction of a person with a neckbeard. The background image is also intended to be suggestive of a person with a neckbeard (white face, black beard). The three colours used in the flag - white, black, brown - hint at the range of natural colours of a beard, which can be white, black, or various greys in between, or various browns. Another benefit of this design is that it's somewhat reminiscent of a woman's breast, which should make it memorable.

Calvin Ellis Stowe

Calvin Ellis Stowe (1802-1886) was an American Biblical scholar who was known for his advocacy of universal public education. He was the husband of Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin became one of the best-selling books of the century and helped the slavery abolition movement.

Welsh neckbeards, part 3

Today I present more neckbeards from 19th century Wales, found in the John Thomas photographic collection.

Previous parts: Part 1; Part 2

Alpheus Felch

Alpheus Felch (1804-1896) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the Governor for Michigan and was elected as a U.S. Senator. He also served as Michigan's State Bank Commissioner during 1838-1839, during which time he exposed much corruption and fraud associated with "wildcat banking", where banks were not federally regulated and were free to issue their own currency.