The Question: Who Was The Last U.S. President To Have A Mustache In His Official Presidential Portrait? Answer: The correct answer is William Howard Taft.
The last U.S. President to have a mustache in his official presidential portrait was William Howard Taft. He was the 27th President of the United States and served the country from 1909 to 1913 after which he became 10th Chief Justice. Thus, he was also the only person to serve in both offices.
It was President Teddy Roosevelt who selected William Taft to be his successor. President Taft was the reason for the two major achievements of the US in constitutional amendments that led the US towards progress. One of them was the 16th Amendment which gave the power to create Income taxes to Congress Government.
Well speaking about Facial Hair, it has been more than a century that a US president has a mustache or beard after President Taft. But, there were presidents with beards before William Taft, five of them were renowned for having unique beards. The names of these presidents include
- Benjamin Harrison: – Being the 23rd U.S. President, Benjamin Harrison served the nation from 1833 to 1901. He was an American lawyer and politician who wore all 4 years when he was in the Hite House. If it is about the beard, Harrison was the last president to have a beard.
- James Garfield: – President Garfield was the 20th U.S president who served from 1877 to 1881. He was the fourth bearded president and was also described as similar to Rasputin’s black with streaks of grey. Besides, he is also counted second in the presidents having the shortest tenure in the U.S. presidency.
- Rutherford B. Hayes: – President Hayes ranks third among the U.S. Presidents with a beard. He has the longest beard of all other presidents and was the 19th president served from 1877 to 1881. He was the reason that led to Civil service reformation. Hayes also served as the chief executive at the end of Reconstruction which later became the beginning of the modern industrial age.
- Ulysses Grant: – Ulysses Grant was the second time when people saw a bearded president in U.S. President Grant was the 18th president and served the nation from 1869 to 1877. He was the first full-bearded president other than the half-cut beard of Lincoln. But, he trimmed it soon when his wife didn’t like the style. Well, he has an iconic style that represents the strict yet classy vibe of the U.S. presidency.
- Abraham Lincoln: – The trend of having beards at the president position began with President Lincoln. He was the first bearded U.S. President, but the reason for having a beard was quite different.
The reason behind the bearded look of Lincoln was a letter from 11- year-old Grace Bedell. He was from New York and wrote that he had 4 brothers and they would vote for him only if he grew his whiskers. From then, Lincoln started growing a beard and by the time he grew his renowned “chinstrap” beard.
Apart from these names, there are several other presidents having facial hairs in their portraits, some of them are
- Chester Arthur
- John Quincy Adams
- Martin Van Bureu
- Grover Cleveland
- Theodore Roosevelt
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