Beard Archives Thomas S Gowing, The Philosophy of Beards, British Library 2014 (1854)
Beards are, at least in some areas and amongst certain types of people, in fashion.
Pondering the issue of the importance of archives on social media, the well known beard wearer and Arsenal fan Michael Rosen suggested there should be a ‘beard archive’. Not I think cuttings of people’s facial hair but books, reports and documents relating to facial hair.
It is a subject that periodically fascinates the media but also has a lot of a-historical twaddle written about it.
Beards are held to be going in or going out of fashion, to have been worn for this or that reason, and so on with little research done to underwrite the point.
The Philosophy of Beards by Thomas S Gowing was first published in 1854 and now together with some illustrations of beards from a 1922 volume has been brought out again by the British Library’s Publishing arm.
Politically correct it is not, although it may not have caused that much comment in 1850 on that basis.
It can be read as quirky social history, of its time, particularly in relation to its views of women.
However while little appears to be known about Gowing it would seem that he may well also have been the author of an 1838 volume on schools. Certainly a perusal of that book suggests a certain similarity of style with this volume.
The point is that Gowing appears to have been a reasonably serious chap rather than a satirist or humourist and that means that a fair bit of his commentary about beards remain broadly true today and can be read as a useful guide to at least some matters hirsute.
Gowing takes a number of angles on the beard from physiology to the Church and a quick summary of the beard in history.
Gowing correctly argues that different beard styles suit different faces- long or short- and underlines that the idea that shaving goes hand in hand with civilization is false. The Greek philosophers did not shave when it became the fashion in Ancient Greece.
Indeed Gowing gives credence to the politics of beard liberation when he argues that ‘with every attempt at freedom on the Continent [Europe] the beard re-appears (p75).
He finishes the book by dealing with common objections to the beard, some of which remain with us too. Beards are not dirty in the main, but regularly washed, and even if it takes as long to maintain a beard as to shave Gowing suggests that the practice of shaving exposes people to disease. Who can doubt it?
The book is to modern tastes perhaps somewhat eccentric and indeed Anglocentric but it is a good deal more than just a period piece. Gowing writes much good sense about facial hair, even if not all of his views and advice have stood the test of time.
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