Grim Graders

Was it a requirement that the faculty in 1886 sport beards and look stern for the camera? Facial hair certainly was the norm back then, as seen in this collection of whiskered “officers of instruction”portraits (that’s President Samuel Bartlett, class of 1836, in the middle). It comes from Rauner Library, whose curators say it was once common for students to collect portraits of classmates and professors and assemble them into their own albums. Student W.E. Marden, class of 1886, of Allentown, Pennsylvania, was the creator of this collage.