MorganH

Just the words ‘comfort food’ brings to mind delicious pleasures that can take you far away from stressful days.

Of course, presidents are just like us in that way.  Everyone has their go to ‘comfort food’, the one thing you like to eat while lowering the stresses of a busy life.  And presidents live in a pressure cooker, so the need for a favorite food can go a long way to reducing some of that massive stress.

Wouldn’t you like to know those favorite foods of our presidents?  You may be surprised, or shake your head at some of them, but there are some easy to see revelations into their personalities too.

Some of these favorites have become so well known that it’s become part of their identity. Think Ronald Reagan and his jellybeans.

One president has received credit for the creation of one of America’s all time go to comfort foods.  Thomas Jefferson spent years in France while representing our country.  He loved French foods and wines.  Once back home, he took some culinary ideas from his experiences and created what we now call Mac & Cheese!

Just thinking about a warm side of Mac & Cheese makes me hungry!

George H. W. Bush was more famous for a food he hated, than for his actual favorite.  He loved his pork rinds but very publicly hated broccoli.

Naturally, there is some regional appeal for certain foods, depending on where the man grew up. No surprise that John F. Kennedy loved New England clam chowder, or that Jimmy Carter loves grits.

Some presidents have used food as an insult while engaging in political bullying.  In 1897, Theodore Roosevelt was serving in the William McKinley administration as Assistant Secretary of the Navy.  Roosevelt was a vocal advocate of naval preparedness, most immediately for a possible war with Spain.  Mr. McKinley, a Civil War veteran, was slow to push for war.  Roosevelt famously insulted him by saying “he has no more backbone than a chocolate éclair”.  4 years later, after gaining fame in the Spanish-American War for his charge up San Juan Hill, Roosevelt succeeded to the presidency following McKinley’s assassination in Buffalo New York.

Some president’s favorites are from the sweet tooth category. Dwight Eisenhower loved fudge, James Madison preferred ice cream, and Zachary Taylor loved beignets.

Others would be considered odd by today’s standards. For example, William Henry Harrison and James Garfield both liked squirrel as a stew or soup.  Andrew Jackson loved “leather britches”, a regional name for green beans and bacon.

The idea of comfort food in more modern times may be best illustrated by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s love of grilled cheese sandwiches or Barack Obama’s preference for nachos.   FDR went further by serving hot dogs to the King of England during a state visit to Hyde Park. The president who gets the prize for most nutritious favorite is John Quincy Adams who loved fresh fruits.  And for the weirdest favorite, I must award that distinction to Richard Nixon for his cottage cheese and ketchup habit.

Finally, we cannot complete our presidential food journey without mentioning William Howard Taft. It seems we all know that Big Bill was our largest president, tipping the scale at 330 pounds during his presidency.  So, a natural question becomes: what was his go to comfort food?  He loved steak and potatoes and ate heartily.  For him, unhappy as president, eating was his way to off load stress. After his term ended, he shed over 80 pounds, serving later as Supreme Court Chief Justice in a trimmer form.

What about our current president?  Joe Biden’s favorite is pasta with red sauce, specifically angel hair pomodoro.

Interested in learning more about the presidents? Visit the Carolyn & James Millar Presidential Gallery on the upper level of the Booth Western Art Museum. The gallery features original letters and photographs of every U.S. president. Learn more at www.boothmuseum.org.

The style and form of presidential travel has been discussed and debated since the nation’s founding in 1789.  George Washington was very attuned to the visual impact of the well-appointed carriage he used to get from place to place in the late 18^th century. The last half of the 19^th century saw upscale private railroad cars as the primary mode of transport for the president.

But Air Force One, the president’s private jet, took the concept of presidential travel to astounding new heights.

Let’s examine the evolution of presidential flying over the past eight decades.

The Early Years

The first president to fly while in office was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who undertook an arduous 44 hour journey to Casablanca on a military flying boat in 1943 to meet with Winston Churchill during World War II. He couldn’t travel by ship due to the risk of German submarine attack.

His successor, Harry Truman, also used a military plane, a Douglas C-54 dubbed the Sacred Cow.  Truman had a bit of prankster in him. He once took off from Washington and directed the pilot to fly over the White House.  They buzzed the home at 500 feet going 500 miles per hour!  And they made two passes!   Hard to imagine that happening today.

Later, in 1947, Truman used a faster plane he called Independence, named after his hometown in Missouri.

Dwight Eisenhower, a trained pilot himself, upgraded to a Lockheed Constellation called Columbine II, named for the state flower of Colorado where First Lady Mamie Eisenhower grew up. Ike was on Columbine II in 1954 when a potential disaster was averted.  When Eisenhower flew, the military used regular flight identification protocols. His flight was Air Force 8610.  At that same moment, another plane in the area was using Eastern 8610. The confusion could have ended in disaster.  After that flight, it was decided that anytime the president is on a flight, the call number would be Air Force One.

The Jet Age

In 1959, toward the end of Eisenhower’s second term, the Air Force acquired a Boeing 707, the first jet used in presidential travel.  It was painted with orange and black accent colors, with block letters for The United States of America.

In 1962, under new president John F. Kennedy, the first jet specifically built for the president was delivered. Kennedy was well aware of the profound impact this symbol of American power and diplomacy would have. He selected famed designer Raymond Loewy to create the now-famous blue and white livery with the presidential seal on the Boeing 707. Kennedy also specified the use of the same font scheme found in the Constitution for the words The United States of America.

The jet was used from 1962 to 1990 by presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan.  Johnson was sworn into office aboard the plane following Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas in 1963. Nixon flew it to Beijing in 1972 to open up diplomatic relations with China.

The plane is now on indoor display at the Ronald Reagan Library and Museum in California. It’s back up twin is at Wright Patterson Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.

747s and the Modern Age

In 1990 during the administration of George H. W. Bush, two new Boeing 747s replaced the aging 707s. These highly customized planes have offices, a bedroom and shower for the president, conference room, medical center, two galleys capable of serving 100, advanced communications capability, mid-air refueling, plus the ability to withstand an electromagnetic pulse.

The plane travels at 600 mph and costs about $200,000 per hour to fly.  It’s painted in the same classic blue and white livery started by JFK. Unlike the 1997 Harrison Ford movie Air Force One, the real plane does not have an escape pod.

The 4,000 square foot Air Force One is truly a “flying White House” allowing the president to fully function from the sky anywhere in the world.  For nine hours on September 11, 2001, Air Force One was George W. Bush’s flying White House in an emergency due to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

Preserving History

The planes used by the president have historic value and several are on display at the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum.  The Columbine II used by Eisenhower fell into a bureaucratic snafu after its service. For decades it sat rusting away in the Arizona desert, unidentified as Columbine II. The CEO of an aircraft restoration company finally figured out the plane’s true identity and spent 8,000 hours getting it ready to fly from Arizona to Virginia for complete refurbishment. That work is ongoing, with an estimated $12 million budget to complete the restoration. It’s hoped that Columbine II will one day be on display for all to see.

The Future

Two new 747s were ordered in 2016 to replace the now-aging pair of current 747 planes.  Donald Trump gave permission to acquire the new planes from a defunct Russian airline that went bankrupt before ever taking possession of the planes.  Since then, the planes have been undergoing extensive modifications to turn them into 21^st century Air Force Ones. Due to supply chain issues, security clearance requirements for workers and other issues, the planes are very late and way over the fixed cost $3.9 billion budget set by Trump. The delivery date is unknown but may stretch to 2029.

Air Force One, hand polished before every trip, is a gleaming symbol of American power and promise wherever it flies.  If you’re ever near Dayton, Ohio or Simi Valley in California, you can step up the ramp and get a glimpse of history.

Interested in learning more about the presidents? Visit the Carolyn & James Millar Presidential Gallery on the upper level of the Booth Western Art Museum. The gallery features original letters and photographs of every U.S. president. Learn more at www.boothmuseum.org.

Photo: Library of Congress

For nearly a century, the president of the United States used US naval vessels and yachts to conduct foreign affairs, entertain guests, schmooze senators, and build relationships. From 1880 to 1977 a series of ships and yachts became part of routine life for the presidents, although the one who ended these “floating White Houses” later regretted it.

Over the decades, seven ships served the president, some for only a few trips, and one that served for over 40 years.

Let’s look at these vessels and dive into their presidential history.

The first ship was used by President Chester A. Arthur named the USS Despatch. Active from 1880-1891, the Despatch took President Grover Cleveland to the dedication ceremony for the Statue of Liberty in 1886.

From 1893-1897, Cleveland and his successor William McKinley used the USS Dolphin for executive purposes.

In 1905, Theodore Roosevelt upgraded the stature of the ships by using the USS Mayflower, a 275-foot luxury ship that had originally been built for a real estate tycoon.  It had expensive details, a dinner table for 30 people and a crew of 150.  The Mayflower was subsequently used by presidents Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge and Hoover.  Woodrow Wilson used the ship to woo Edith Boling Gault after his first wife Ellen died in 1914.

In 1929, Hoover decided to decommission the Mayflower as a cost cutting step at the beginning of the Great Depression.

However, in short order Hoover began using a much smaller but quite sumptuous wooden yacht named the Sequoia. Built in 1925, it was 104 feet in length and large enough to entertain up to 40 guests and 22 for dinner.  Hoover liked to use it for fishing trips, and, in a tone-deaf decision, put the Sequoia on his 1932 Christmas Cards as the Depression surged on.

His successor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, used the Sequoia at the outset of his presidency and had an elevator installed to accommodate his wheelchair. Later, from 1936-1945, FDR used the USS Potomac, a steel hulled ship better suited for him than a more flammable wooden ship.

From 1945-1953, Harry Truman used both the Sequoia and the USS Williamsburg.  He liked the smaller Sequoia for his regular poker games up and down the Potomac River, and the larger Williamsburg for bigger events and longer cruises.  The USS Williamsburg was decommissioned in 1953 by Dwight Eisenhower after one short trip at the start of his presidency.

Eisenhower preferred golfing to cruising, but when John F. Kenney became president in 1961 the Sequoia once more came front and center. Kennedy, a sailor all his life, loved to get out on the water.  His last birthday party, his 46^th, was held on the Sequoia in 1963.

Lyndon Johnson replaced the elevator on Sequoia with a wet bar and used the Sequoia as a location to negotiate with Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union.

Richard Nixon used Sequoia by far the most frequently, taking over 100 trips from 1969-1974.  He made his decision to resign the presidency on the Sequoia, asking the crew to turn out all the lights and playing God Bless America on the piano in the dark for 30 minutes.

Gerald Ford used Sequoia for cabinet meetings from time to time.

Ford’s successor, Jimmy Carter, had campaigned on being a Washington outsider and pledged to cut back on excessive spending.  One of his targets was the Sequoia and its $800,000 per year maintenance cost. He had it sold at auction for $286,000 in 1977.

Carter came to regret his decision to get rid of the yacht. He later said, “The people thought I was not being reverent enough to the office, that I was too much of a peanut farmer. That shows that the American people want something of an element, of an image of monarchy in the White House.”

In subsequent decades, Sequoia has been sold and re-sold multiple times, most recently in 2016 for $7.8 million.  As of 2023 it is in an enclosed maritime shop in Maryland undergoing a 5-year renovation.

After its decommissioning, the Potomac was used by a Mexican drug cartel for several years, then it was acquired by FDR’s son James Roosevelt. You can go on it at anchor in Oakland California as it’s open for tours.

While presidents had been flying since FDR in 1943, ultimately, Air Force One (official designation began in 1962) became the ride of preference for presidents, placing the presidential yacht into the quaint, yet beloved by some, portion of the history books.

Interested in learning more about the presidents? Visit the Carolyn & James Millar Presidential Gallery on the upper level of the Booth Western Art Museum. The gallery features original letters and photographs of every U.S. president. Learn more at www.boothmuseum.org.

Consider the lowly penny. Tossed into piggy banks and lost in sofas, the penny doesn’t get much respect today. But over 100 years ago, one president decided to make history with the penny, and started a trend that continues today.

To get to the heart of the story, we must go back to 1865.

When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, Theodore Roosevelt was seven years old, living in his hometown of New York City.  The nation was shocked at Lincoln’s death, and his funeral extended over 13 days with a train carrying his casket to many cities so the populace could pay their respects.  New York was one of those cities, and the cortege passed Roosevelt’s home.  As documented by a photo taken that day, young Theodore watched from an upstairs window.

Thereafter, Lincoln was Theodore’s favorite president, held in high esteem for his leadership during our nation’s worst crisis.

Theodore (who hated the name Teddy) also became president following an assassination, that of William McKinley in 1901.  Theodore was an assertive president, forever changing the office and firmly putting the Executive Branch into a preeminent place in our government.

Once he secured election to the office in his own right in 1904, he began searching for ways to honor Lincoln.  Up to that time in our nation’s history, coins were minted with eagles, images of a female ‘Liberty’, Indians, Grecian Gods, and pastoral scenes.   No coin had ever borne the image of a president.

Roosevelt saw his opening. He insisted that a new penny be minted with the head of Lincoln on one side. He commissioned an artist he had patronized in New York, Victor David Brenner, to design it.  He pushed it through all the approvals, and the first Lincoln penny was struck in 1909 in time to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth.

But the story doesn’t end there.

Victor David Brenner was determined to ‘sign’ his work, insisting that his initials, VDB, appear on the back of the penny.  People immediately noticed the large initials, and within a short time, the Secretary of the Treasury demanded the end of the production run. Over 28 million pennies had been produced.  After much debate, the artist’s issue was resolved in 1919, with his initials appearing in nearly microscopic font below the bevel of the Lincoln bust and left of center. Every penny since then has borne his initials.

Not surprisingly, Roosevelt’s decision to honor Lincoln on the penny led to many other presidential coins: the Washington Quarter in 1932, Jefferson Nickel in 1938, Franklin Roosevelt Dime in 1946, (appropriate since FDR led the March of Dimes campaigns as he was a polio victim), Kennedy Half Dollar in 1964, and the Eisenhower Dollar in 1971.

The government has minted hundreds of billions of Lincoln pennies over the past 111 years. It now costs more than a cent to mint a penny. And, due to inflation and use of credit cards, some are calling for an end to the mighty penny.

If and when that happens, we may see Lincoln appear again on a future coin. Maybe try dollar coins again?  If they use the Victor David Brenner design, I wonder if his initials will still be used?

And, what about paper currency, you ask?

The 1913 passage of the Federal Reserve Act also included an overhaul of our paper currency.  Lincoln appeared on the $5 bill the next year.  Fittingly, George Washington was first to appear on our currency, in 1869.

Interested in learning more about the presidents? Visit the Carolyn & James Millar Presidential Gallery on the upper level of the Booth Western Art Museum. The gallery features original letters and photographs of every U.S. president. Learn more at www.boothmuseum.org.

Could it be true that a tiff between two wives likely saved Ulysses S. Grant’s life?

Julia Grant, Ulysses’ wife, and Mary Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s wife, had little respect for each other due to snubs and harsh words in the past. Just the month before, Mary coldly received Julia at a social call in Virgina and was appalled that Julia did not back out of the room and treat her like royalty.  On another day, the jealous Mary sniped at Julia saying, “I suppose you think you’ll get to the White House yourself, don’t you?”

So when the Lincolns invited the Grants to watch a show at Ford’s Theater on April 14, 1865, just a few days after Appomattox and the end of the Civil War, the Grants politely declined, explaining that they were set to travel out of town that  evening. No way Julia wanted to endure more time with Mary Lincoln.

Little did Grant know about John Wilkes Booth and his cabal of assassins. They had been plotting simultaneous attacks on Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward, to culminate that very night. While Booth attacked Lincoln at the theater, Lewis Powell would attack Seward, and David Atzerodt would kill Johnson.

In those days, the press regularly publicized the appearances of presidents in advance—handbills had already been printed announcing that the Lincolns and Grants were expected to attend the theater that night. With Grant at Ford’s Theater as well, Booth realized he could kill the two most visible and powerful men in the country at the same time.

The stage was set—until the Grants backed out. Their decision to decline the invitation also became public knowledge, however, and that night, as Grant’s carriage–loaded with luggage and with his family with him—moved down Pennsylvania Avenue toward Union Station, a dark rider on horseback chased them down. The rider glared at the General and rode off, only to return a few minutes later and repeat the threatening behavior.

The rider was John Wilkes Booth, exasperated and angry of losing his chance at Grant.

Meanwhile, the Lincolns still wanted company at the theater, so they invited Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara to join them for the play. A policeman, John Parker, was posted outside the door of Lincoln’s box to protect the President, but he wandered away to the saloon next door. Booth had free entry and shot Lincoln in the back of the head at close range.

Lincoln was carried across the street to a small residence, where he died of his wounds in a few hours.

After shooting Lincoln and leaping to the theater stage, Booth escaped into Virginia and was tracked for several days by 10,000 troops, detectives, and police. He was eventually caught and killed. Lewis Powell viciously attacked Secretary of State Seward with a knife. David Atzerodt lost his nerve and never approached Vice President Johnson.

Fortunately, Seward survived, although he was scarred for life on his face and neck. The surviving cabal was quickly found guilty and all hanged together on July 7, 1865 at Fort McNair in Washington DC.

In a surprising twist to this shocking, murderous plot, John Wilkes Booth’s father, Junius, had threatened to assassinate President Andrew Jackson 30 years earlier. Booth’s father wrote a letter to Jackson in 1835 saying he intended to “cut your throat whilst you are sleeping”. Jackson ignored the threat, and nothing ever came of it.

Did young John Wilkes learn his malevolent hatred from kitchen table talk with his father? We’ll never know.

What we do know is that Julia and Ulysses Grant’s decision to opt out of the theater engagement likely saved his life, allowing him to go on and become president four years later and serve two full terms in the highest office.

Interested in learning more about the presidents? Visit the Carolyn & James Millar Presidential Gallery on the upper level of the Booth Western Art Museum. The gallery features original letters and photographs of every U.S. president. Learn more at www.boothmuseum.org.