Canada’s History has uncovered the perfect guide to help men prepare their facial hair for Movember.

Imagine an 1894 version of Maxim... except at a time when men preferred to look at other men and marvel in their opulence, and publication titles were not very catchy. Let us introduce you to The Canadian Album: Men of Canada or Success by Example in Religion, Patriotism, Business, Law, Medicine, Education and Agriculture; containing portraits of some of Canada's Chief Business Men, Statesmen, Farmers, Men of the Learned Professions, and Others. Also an authentic sketch of their lives. Object lessons for the present generation and examples to posterity.

The album is like a Canadian Who's Who (except only Ontarians seemed to merit acknowledgement), and as we the scrolled through it, we found ourselves marvelling at their facial hair. At the turn of the past century, hair that was bushy, wild, or waxed (on, not off) was far more in vogue than today and our forefathers were very dapper indeed. Sir John A. Macdonald, who is included in this album, bucked the trend and was noted for his tendency to not follow the facial fashions of his day.

Although not its intended purpose, we thought our online visitors would find The Canadian Album: Men of Canada inspirational and would like to share it with those they know who participate in Movember. While some of these "successful men" are clean cut, the majority sport some variation of mustache, beard, sideburns, or Van Dyke.

We created a small photo gallery of examples we enjoyed (see below), however, if you have the time you can scroll through the whole volume of 512 pages yourself: The Canadian Album: Men of Canada, or Success by Example (33MB).

We hope your Movember is as much a success as these Men of Canada!

— Text by Tanja Hütter and Joel Ralph; The Canadian Album was found on Archive.org.