Honoring Movember with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

In honor of #Facial Hair Friday and Movember, check out these images of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’s magnificent mustache over the years.

The first photograph, taken in 1872 when Holmes was in his early 30s, shows him the same year he married his wife, Fanny Bowditch Dixwell. His mustache is off to a good start:

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., 1872, HOLLIS olvwork389586.

The second image shows Holmes in his mid-50s, during his tenure on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. By this time, he’d upped his earlier mustache game in both length and fullness:

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., 1897, HOLLIS olvwork385820, copy 2 by Hardy, Boston, Mass.

The final photograph was taken in 1931, on his 90th birthday. He stands in front of a wall of books in what appears to be his Washington, D.C. office. His mustache is now white and bushy, and extends well beyond the confines of his face:

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., 1931, detail of HOLLIS olvwork389858.

Explore more of Holmes and his mustache in Harvard’s online image catalog, HOLLIS Images, https://bit.ly/hollisimages.

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