Mustaches

Walking through the mall last week with my daughter, I was struck by a fad.




[These images from Amazon. com represent the diversity of products related to mustaches]

With a little research, I found that I am way behind the times. This is apparently not a new fad....but I began wondering how such a fad can get started  because of course when I see this:

I think of this:

Orphan photo of unidentified man with mustache

I am constantly reminded how archives, in the very broadest sense of the word, connects to just about everything. If I were still an archivist who managed nineteenth century collections, I would dig into my archives and exhibit more photos like this. I'd show my patrons how our mustaches beat them all. (Even Hello Kitty.) And how the fantastical relates to what is real. Who could adequately describe the fine gent pictured above? (He must be shown to be believed.) So, I challenge my colleagues to dig into your archives and jump on the mustache band wagon. And those of you with family collections, do you have a distinguised gent you would like to share? I've created a mustache album on the ArchivesInfo Facebook page and if you post an image on the FB site, I'll add it to the album. Please share whatever info you have about your photo because, of course, the context of the image adds so much to the image itself.

Want to learn more about the mustache fad? See these articles:

State of the 'Stache  from The Atlantic.

The Bearded Man. The Wallstreet Journal.