A 17 and half foot long beard, once sported by a sideshow performer

Hans Langseth, an Iowa farmer of Norwegian descent, entered a beard-growing competition when he was 19 years old. It is uncertain if he won the competition, but he decided to keep growing his beard afterward. Hans reinforced and gave his beard more substance as it grew by coiling it as it grew. As he got older, Hans traveled the nation as a sideshow entertainer, performing at circuses and fairs. He carried the beard between appearances in his pockets or bag, wrapped around a corncob. The beard still has corn in it, according to Smithsonian officials. By 1922, a club calling itself the Whiskerinos had measured Langseth's beard to a length of 17 feet, making it the longest in America.

1927 saw Hans's passing. He requested that his beard be removed, but otherwise left in tact. Before his son gave it to the Smithsonian, it spent many years in his family's custody, packaged and stored. From 1967 until it was taken out and kept in the National Museum of Natural History, it remained there on exhibit. Although Langseth's relatives have occasionally had access to it, it is still in storage today. The curators, who keep the beard as part of their research on the human body collection, decide if and when to put it back on display.