BIZARRE FACIAL HAIR IN PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND

The gentleman photographed for this cabinet card  wears his beard in a most unusual style. His place in the Cabinet Card Gallery’s category of  “Beards (Only the Best)” is well deserved. The photographer of this portrait is Alexander C. Brownell of Providence, Rhode Island. Brownell’s death notice appeared  in a 1916 photographic magazine. The article stated that Brownell died in New York City of “hardening of the arteries” but that his health had been less than robust for the previous 30 years due to his accidentally poisoning himself thirty years earlier while experimenting with chemicals to be used for zinc etchings.