Who is this bearded person of possible historic significance?

Based on the clarity of the shot, it is either Ulysses S. Grant, Moses or John Cleese.

It’s the best my iSight will do in poor light, and I figure it’s good enough for those who know who it is.

Also, if those are your best bets, you may need to see an optometrist… :-P

I see one every year. Let’s try again. That beard is so helpful, of course. Freud, one of the Smith brothers of cough drop fame, Charles Dickens or Guiseppi Verdi.

ulysses grant was a good guess. He looks very military.

Thankyouverymuch. (Regards to bead).

@uno Since you don’t know who it is, I wouldn’t be so brash with gail. I think it looks like Grant too.

My first two thoughts were Charles Darwin and Alexander Graham Bell, however a Google image search of those names proved me wrong. Therefore I agree with Gail, it is definitely John Cleese.

What brand of shirt is it?

Maybe you could look on their website!

Edvard Grieg? Hendrich Ibsen?

I’m sorry if I came off that way (brash that is). Based on comparisons to portraits found online, neither of current suggestions match. Grant has a wider jaw, longer forehead and a different nose (link), Freud had a more pointy mustache in younger years, and white hair and beard later on, Dickens had a somewhat longer face (link), Verdi a wider nose (link).. And no, the shirt is not Norwegian, but nice touch checking out my profile ;-)

How about Robert E Lee?

I was not being entirely serious. It looks like a Terry Gilliam illustration from Monty Python, if you want a really educated guess.

@bulbatron9: Good tip, but alas, no information found on the site.

gailcalled: I agree on that, Gilliam used quite a lot of these types of woodcut clippings. I don’t think he made any of them, but rather cut them up and used them in new and fun ways.

Uno, If you tell me that Norwegian is your mother tongue and English your second language, I am going to be really, really upset.

It is, but don’t worry – my pronounciation is significantly worse than my spelling :-P

What’s the design on the lapel on the bottom right (his left)? Is that a logo for the company that made the shirt or is it a clue as to who the guy is?

It’s a space invader! ...the lapel that is.

Well, I ran the picture through a facial recognition program. But since it’s in illustration, it was harder to get an accurate result. Anyhow, the computer seems to think it might be Benjamin Harrison, but all the pictures I’ve found of him seem older than the t-shirt [image].

Why would anyone either print or buy a T with Benjamin Harrison on it?

Hah, oh you know hipsters and their irony these days!

Doesn’t look like Harrison to me. I feel like I’ve seen this image before, sans highlighting and label icon. This is quite a puzzle! (also, I think it’s an engraving, not a woodcut)

Can you tell us anything more about where you got it?

If you hung a that beard on Milo, (or on me, for that matter) and then silk-screened it, you’d have a similar image.

It’s the eyes! I’ve seen those eyes!

Could it be Vice President Schuyler Colfax? I mean, he’s not famous (he was Ulysses S. Grant’s VP), but the resemblance is there.

Sincere, humble and with respect; Very few people are interested in long dead american ex-vice-presidents, generals and the likes, besides americans (just as norwegians are pretty much the only ones interested in the fact that the paper clip is a norwegian invention – I mean come on, it’s just a flaming paper clip!)

The shirt is of spanish origin (although made in Peru for some reason), and I doubt that the person on the shirt – if famous and/or real – is anything but european. I did check out the names you kindly suggested, and to me they bear no resemblance to the man on my shirt.

The hunt is still on! :-)

I would narrow the list to the activist/liberal/person of questionable character type. No one really puts on a t-shirt the face of someone that everyone already thinks is great. Think about any shirt you see like that—you see it because the wearer wants you to know that he or she supports or likes the person… and 99% of the time, it’s someone unique that either no one else likes or could cause a controversy—otherwise they’d feel no “need” to wear the shirt in the first place!

By the way, I’m not making any accusations on you, uno, because you don’t even know who it is! In this situation, I’m speaking of those who produced the shirt.

Nobody loves a yes-man, and everyone has skeletons in their closets, so I quite agree with you there ;-)

Che, Fidel, or Simon Bolivar?