yesterdaysprint:

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Missouri, December 9, 1900

My husband likes my beard. He thinks it very nice, and says often that if I ever cut it off he will leave me. That’s only in fun, though, because beard or no beard we would be happy.

According to Kathleen Valetine’s blog, a lot of people believe that Viola Myers, a gay man, took up the role of bearded lady simply to allow her to marry her husband. The couple were married when Viola was 18 (this article was written when she was 46). According to The “Case of a Bearded Woman”: Hypertrichosis and the Construction of Gender in the Age of Darwin, by Kimberly A. Hamlin, the couple had two children.   

Here’s another photo from Kathleen’s blog: