Presidential Images: America’s Leaders Ever since George Washington became President in 1789, the presidency has been a major focus of American political life, and as with nearly everything associated popular interest. There was, in fact, a time when painted, sculpted or engraved likenesseswith that office, were presidentialthe only means portraits that most have people from the knew outset their attracted Presidents. considerable In the case of Washington, there were even sporadic debates through much of the nineteenth century over which portrait had most accurately recorded him for posterity. 2 The media for presidential imagery has ranged everywhere from the traditional oil-on-canvas and marble to cotton handkerchiefs and sewing-box lids, and the 1 Gallery houses today a richly varied array of presidential likenesses. In the selection of portraits on view here, some are more sophisticated and striking than others; some are quite rare or altogether unique; some are calculated to impress us with their gravity while others are warmly intimate. Taken collectively, however, they all have one thing in common: In one degree or another, they all evoke the history Paintings by: 1. Ulysses S. Grant 2. Dwight Eisenhower of the nation’s highest office and the individuals who have occupied it. 3. Jimmy Carter 4. George W. Bush 3 4 Presidents 1. George Washington 24. Grover Cleveland 2. John Adams 25. William McKinley 3. Thomas Jefferson 26. Theodore Roosevelt 4. James Madison 27. William Howard Taft 28. Woodrow Wilson I must study politics and war, that my sons may study 5. James Monroe 6. John Quincy Adams 29. Warren Harding mathematics and philosophy…in order to give their 7. Andrew Jackson 30. Calvin Coolidge children the right to study painting, poetry, 8. Martin Van Buren 31. Herbert Hoover music and architecture. John Quincy Adams 9. William Henry Harrison 32. Franklin D. Roosevelt 10. John Tyler 33. Harry S Truman 11. James Polk 34. Dwight Eisenhower 12. Zachary Taylor 35. John F. Kennedy 13. Millard Fillmore 36. Lyndon B. Johnson 14. Franklin Pierce 37. Richard Nixon 15. James Buchanan 38. Gerald Ford 16. Abraham Lincoln 39. Jimmy Carter 17. Andrew Johnson 40. Ronald Reagan 18. Ulysses S. Grant 41. George Bush 19. Rutherford Hayes 42. Bill Clinton 20. James Garfield 43. George W. Bush 21. Chester Alan Arthur 44. Barack Obama 22. Grover Cleveland 45. Donald Trump 23. Benjamin Harrison 1 George Washington Term: 1789-1797 Vice President: John Adams Lived: 1732-1799 (age 67) artist: 1st Lady: Martha Dandridge Custis Washington date: Party: Unaffiliated Height: 6’ 2” and let your hand give in proportion to your purse.” “Let your heart feel for the afflictions and distress of everyone, 2 John Adams Term: 1797-1826 Vice President: Thomas Jefferson Lived: 1735-1826 (age 90) Party: Federalist artist: Reynold Brown 1st Lady: Abigail Smith Adams date: 1965 Height: 5’ 7” “Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.” 3 Thomas Jefferson Term: 1801-1809 Vice Presidents: Aaron Burr (1801–1805) George Clinton (1805–1809) Lived: 1743-1826 (age 67) Party: Democratic-Republican 1st Lady: Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson Height: 6’ 2” “The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.” artist: date: 4 James Madison Term: 1809-1817 Vice Presidents: George Clinton (1809-1812) Elbridge Gerry (1812-1814) None (1814–1817) Lived: 1751-1836 (age 85) artist: Party: Democratic-Republican date: 1st Lady: Dolley Payne Todd Madison Height: 5’ 4” “Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.” 5 James Monroe Term: 1817-1825 Vice President: Daniel D. Tompkins artist: 1758-1831 (age 73) Lived: date: Party: Democratic-Republican 1st Lady: Elizabeth Kortright Monroe Height: 6’ 0” “The movements of a great nation are connected in all their parts. If errors have been committed they ought to be corrected; if the policy is sound it ought to be supported.” 6 John Quincy Adams Term: 1825-1829 Vice President: John C. Calhoun artist: Lived: 1767-1848 (age 80) date: Parties: Democratic-Republican 1st Lady: Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams Height: 5’ 7” “All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.” 7 Andrew Jackson Term: 1829-1837 Vice Presidents: John C. Calhoun (1829–1832) artist: None (1832–1833) date: Martin Van Buren (1833–1837) Lived: 1767-1845 (age 78) Parties: Democratic 1st Lady: Rachel Donelson Jackson Height: 6’ 1” “As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending.” 8 Martin Van Buren Term: 1837-1841 Vice Presidents: Richard Mentor Johnson Lived: 1782-1862 (age 79) artist: Parties: Democratic date: 1st Lady: Hannah Hoes Van Buren Height: 5’ 6” “In a government whose distinguishing characteristic should be of individuals will be augmented at the expense of the community at large.” a diffusion and equalization of its benefits and burdens the advantage 9 William Henry Harrison Term: Vice1841-1841 President: (Died John inTyler office) Lived: 1773-1841 (age 68) Parties: Whig 1st Lady: Anna Tuthill Symmes Harrison artist: Reynold Brown date: 1965 Height: 5’ 8” “I contend that the strongest of all governments is that which is most free.” 10 John Tyler Term: 1841-1845 Vice President: John Tyler Lived: 1790-1862 (age 71) Parties: 1st Ladies: Letitia Christian Tyler Whig then Unaffiliated artist: George Peter Alexander Healy Julia Gardiner Tyler date: 1859 Height: 6’ 0” “Wealth can only be accumulated by the earnings of industry and the savings of frugality.” 11 James Knox Polk Term: 1845-1849 Vice President: George M. Dallas artist: Lived: 1795-1849 (age 53) date: Parties: Democratic 1st Lady: Sarah Childress Polk Height: 5’ 8” “All distinctions of birth or of rank have been abolished. All citizens, whether native or adopted, are placed upon terms of precise equality. All are entitled to equal rights and equal protection.” 12 Zachary Taylor Term: George M. Dallas Vice President:1849-1850 (Died in office) Lived: 1784-1850 (age 65) Parties: Whig artist: 1st Lady: Margaret Mackall Smith Taylor date: Height: 5’ 8” “All distinctions of birth or of rank have been abolished. All citizens, whether native or adopted, are placed upon terms of precise equality. All are entitled to equal rights and equal protection.” 13 Millard Fillmore Term: 1850-1853 Vice President: None Lived: 1800-1874 (age 74) Parties: Whig artist: 1st Lady: Abigail Powers Fillmore date: Height: 5’ 9” “It is not strange... to mistake change for progress.” 14 Franklin Pierce Term: 1853-1857 Vice President: James Buchanan Lived: 1804-1869 (age 64) Party: Democratic artist: 1st Lady: Jane Means Appleton Pierce date: Height: 5’ 10” “While men inhabiting different parts of this vast continent cannot be expected to hold the same opinions, they can unite in a common objective and sustain common principles.” 15 James Buchanan Term: 1857-1861 Vice President: John C. Breckinridge Lived: 1791-1868 (age 77) Party: Democratic artist: 1st Lady: Harriet Rebecca Lane Johnston date: Height: 6’ 0” “The test of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.” 16 Abraham Lincoln Term: 1861-1865 (Assassinated) Vice President: Hannibal Hamlin (1861–1865) Andrew Johnson (1865) Lived: 1809-1865 (age 56) artist: date: Party: Republican (National Union) 1st Lady: Mary Todd Lincoln Height: 6’ 4” “Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” 17 Andrew Johnson Term: 1865-1869 Vice President: None Lived: 1808-1875 (age 66) artist: Reynold Brown Republican (National Union) then Democratic Party: date: 1965 1st Lady: Eliza McCardle Johnson Height: 5’ 10” “Legislation can neither be wise nor just which seeks the welfare of a single interest at the expense and to the injury of many and varied interests.” 18 Ulysses S. Grant Term: 1869-1877 Vice President: Schuyler Colfax (1869–1873) Henry Wilson (1873–1875) artist: None (1875–1877) date: Lived: 1822-1885 (age 63) Party: Republican 1st Lady: Julia Dent Grant Height: 5’ 8” “Legislation can neither be wise nor just which seeks the welfare of a single interest at the expense and to the injury of many and varied interests.” 19 Rutherford B. Hayes Term: 1877-1881 Vice President: William A. Wheeler Lived: 1822-1893 (age 70) Party: Republican artist: Reynold Brown 1st Lady: Lucy Ware Webb Hayes date: 1965 Height: 5’ 8” “The President of the United States should strive to be always mindful of the fact that he serves his party best who serves his country best.” 20 James A. Garfield Term: 1881-1881 (Assassinated) Vice President: Chester A. Arthur Lived: 1831-1881 (age 49) Party: Republican artist: 1st Lady: date: 6’ 0” LucretiaHeight: Rudolph Garfield “The chief duty of government is to keep the peace and stand out of the sunshine of the people.” 21 Chester A. Arthur Term: 1881-1885 Vice President: None Lived: 1829-1886 (age 57) Party: Republican artist: Ole Peter Hansen Balling Ellen Lewis Herndon Arthur 1st Lady: date: 1886 Height: 6’ 2” “The chief duty of government is to keep the peace and stand out of the sunshine of the people.” 22 Grover Cleveland Term: 1885-1889 Vice President: None Lived: 1837-1908 (age 71) Party: Democratic artist: 1st Lady: Frances Folsom Cleveland Preston date: Height: 5’ 11” “Though