Written by Chris Binkert

Over the length of their careers and lifetimes, presidents can become associated with items that help define themselves to the public.  Think Lincoln’s top hat, or Kennedy’s golf clubs,  or George H.W. Bush’s horseshoes.

Some of these items are so intertwined with their lives, they become cultural icons. Photos of them using the items help fix them into our memory banks.

It makes me wonder “Whatever happened to those items?”

Washington

George Washington had bad teeth and spent decades trying to find dentures that he could comfortably wear.  It was so bad that he never smiled much in public, and certainly not for portraits. So, whatever happened to his dentures?

The only complete set of Washington’s dentures can be seen on display at Mt. Vernon, his Virginia estate. Other pieces of his multiple sets of dentures can be seen at the National Museum of Dentistry in Baltimore, and the New York Academy of Medicine.

It’s also a myth that he wore wooden teeth. His were mostly ivory.

Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln wore a top hat for much of the later years of his life. He would store paper notes in the space above his head.  He wore a top hat with a black band signifying the death of his son Willie when he attended the play at Ford’s Theater in April 1865.  After he was shot at close range by John Wilkes Booth, what happened to his top hat?

It was recovered by the War Department and transferred to the Smithsonian Institution. The museum hid it in a basement crate until 1893 when it went on display at the National Museum of American History in Washington DC.  It is a heavily guarded and popular exhibit.

Wilson

Woodrow Wilson, the only president to earn a PhD, typed his own letters, speeches, and documents long before entering the White House.  Once elected, he continued to create his own material, using a series of typewriters.  His favorite was a 1913 Hammond portable that he used to draft his famous Fourteen Points speech.

After his term ended in 1921, the typewriter was disposed of as surplus property.  Somehow, Wilson’s physician, Dr. Cary Grayson, was able to acquire the typewriter and kept it among his family possessions.  In 1962, Grayson’s family formally returned the typewriter to the White House as a gift to President John F. Kennedy.  You can see it today at the White House Visitor Center.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt loved a good martini, especially the ones he made himself using his exquisite traveling martini kit.  It was a 1925 set featuring a silver cocktail shaker and six matching cups kept inside a custom maroon velvet-lined leather box.

Roosevelt took it to the White House in 1933 and used it most days in his private study where he would mix drinks for his inner circle of staff and friends after hours.  Privately, they said his drinks tasted terrible, but they drank them out of respect for Roosevelt.

Today, the martini kit is on display at the FDR Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park NY.

John F. Kennedy

Although he tried to keep it on the low-down, Kennedy was a very good golfer, possibly the best among the many presidential players.  Since he had criticized his immediate predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, about playing too much golf as president, Kennedy preferred not to publicize his outings.

After his assassination in 1963, First Lady Jackie Kennedy kept his clubs in her private possession.  Two years after her death in 1994, Sotheby’s auctioned off the golf clubs as part of an estate sale.   Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, married to Maria Shriver, niece of President Kennedy,  bought the woods for $772,500, and an anonymous buyer paid $387,000 for the irons.

George H. W. Bush

George H. W. Bush loved to play horseshoes. Pitching horseshoes was one of his favorite pastimes.  He had a horseshoe pit built at the White House in 1989, which still remains there today.

When Queen Elizabeth II visited Bush in 1991, she gave him a set of four silver horseshoes which he immediately used by demonstrating his technique for her.  That set can be seen at Bush’s presidential museum in College Station, Texas.

Naturally, Bush had a pit at Camp David too. When Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visited, Bush took him out to play.  Gorbachev tossed a ringer on his first try!  Bush had the shoe mounted as a gift and presented it to Gorbachev that night at dinner.

There are many more stories like these of items used by the presidents that became identified with their personality.  Look for more of these stories in this space in the future.

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.