Chris Binkert

Why did Ronald Reagan hang the portrait of Calvin Coolidge in his cabinet room?

On the surface, the two men could not have been more different.  The sunny, outgoing, Reagan offers a striking contrast to Coolidge’s tight lipped, frowning New England aloofness. But there are many ways these two presidents, separated by nearly six decades in their service, are very much alike.

Let’s drill down to compare and contrast the 30^th and 40^th presidents.

Early years

Calvin Coolidge was born and raised on a farm in Vermont in a community of less than 100 people.  Ronald Reagan was also born in a tiny town, Tampico, Illinois, population 849.  Calvin’s father was a farmer and elected local official in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. Reagan’s father was an alcoholic salesman who moved the family many times to find new jobs.

Both men graduated from small colleges, Coolidge from Amherst College in Massachusetts and Reagan from Eureka College in Illinois.

First Jobs

Coolidge “read the law” in Northampton, Massachusetts under the eye of a local lawyer.  After passing the bar, Coolidge started out slowly, representing small businesses.  His steady growth as a lawyer was the result of his willingness to build relationships in his community.

Reagan’s success as a radio sports broadcaster in Des Moines, Iowa lead him into the acting profession, ultimately helping him win movie roles in California that honed his speaking abilities.

Marriages

Coolidge and Reagan married attractive, resourceful women that helped them in their political careers.  Coolidge married Grace Goodhue, also from Vermont.  Reagan first married actress Jane Wyman, and after his divorce, married actress Nancy Davis. Both Grace and Nancy were deemed successful First Ladies, known in part for their fashion style.

Republican Governors

Coolidge and Reagan were both elected Republican governors of progressive states, Coolidge in Massachusetts and Reagan in California. It was Coolidge’s handling of a police strike in Boston that rocketed him into national prominence in 1919.  After a week – long strike by police that included nine deaths, Coolidge famously stated: “There is no right to strike against the public safety, anywhere, anytime.”

As Governor of California in 1967, Reagan confronted anti-war student protests on college campuses. He said, “Many leftist campus movements have transcended legitimate protest, with their actions having more to do with rioting and anarchy than academic freedom.”

Reagan, years later as president, would end a 1981 strike by air traffic controllers by firing 11,000 workers, replacing them with freshly trained controllers.

Both Coolidge and Reagan benefitted from taking strong stances in labor disputes affecting public safety.

Presidencies

Vice President Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929) became president upon the death of Warren G. Harding in 1923. He was administered the oath of office at his father’s farmhouse in Vermont, since his father was a notary public.   He won election in his own right in 1924.

Coolidge inherited significant federal debt, incurred during World War I that ended in 1918.  One of the major efforts during his six years as president was to pay down the national debt, reducing it 35% from $28 billion to $18 billion. He actively worked at paring this debt by holding multiple working sessions each month to control spending.  He defined frugality in every decision.

Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) was elected president in part due to his conservative mantra of reducing the size and scope of the federal government.  His landmark tax laws in the 1980s lowered the top personal tax rate from 73% to 28%, the lowest this rate had been since Coolidge was in office.  Reagan also shored up funding for Social Security, the last president to tackle that issue. Reagan oversaw large increases in defense spending that eventually helped lead to the demise of the Soviet Union.

As a result, under “Reaganomics”, the federal debt nearly tripled in size, growing from $728 billion to $2.1 trillion.  In today’s way of thinking, the value of Reagan’s spending and management of the economy was worth it. Pinching pennies as Calvin Coolidge did was ultimately stifling.

Personalities

Coolidge and Reagan had quite different personalities. Coolidge lived in a small duplex in Northampton until he became Vice President. Reagan made much more money and spent it too.

Known as “Silent Cal”, Coolidge was a man of very few words. So much so that a lady seated next to him at a dinner said “Mr. President, I made a bet that I could get you to say more than three words tonight.”  Coolidge said in reply, “You lose.”

Reagan, due to his acting experience, was one of the best public speakers we’ve ever had. Always ready with a quick quip, Reagan could disarm anyone with humor. When he was wheeled into the operating room after being shot in 1981, he said, “I hope all of you are Republicans.”

After the White House

Coolidge declined to run again in 1928 and retired to Northampton where he wrote a successful autobiography.  He died in 1933 of a heart attack at age 60 only 4 years out of office.

Ronald Reagan also wrote a successful autobiography in retirement. He gave speeches for millions of dollars around the world. He died in 2004 at age 93 after battling Alzheimer’s for several years.

So, why did Reagan have Coolidge’s portrait on his wall?

Reagan wanted to emulate the ‘small government’ concepts that Coolidge executed in office.  Reagan, however, was faced with a much more dynamic and complicated world than Coolidge’s.  Reagan made bold and expensive choices, many of which helped re-shape our modern world for the better.

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 Oval Office is renowned for being the central place of power for the President of the United States, a space at once familiar and intimidating. Familiar due to its ubiquity in movies, photos, and speeches. Intimidating as the physical representation of the most powerful country on earth.

But the Oval Office also begs questions.  Why is it oval?  Who designed it? How big is it?  What famous furniture and artwork does it have?

Origins

Our first president, George Washington, had firm control over the design of the White House, selecting Irish architect James Hoban and working closely with him on the style and type of rooms he wanted.

Hoban learned that Washington had made architectural changes to his residences in New York and Philadelphia, creating large bow windows where he could stand for his levees to receive guests.  Washington requested oval shaped rooms in the new White House as well. Hoban created the first floor Blue Room and second floor Yellow Room in the same oval shape to accommodate Washington’s requests.

The Presidential Office

That was fine for entertaining, but the president had to work, too. From its first occupant, John Adams (1797-1801) all the way to Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909), the presidents worked on the second floor in rooms near their own personal family spaces.  It wasn’t until Roosevelt’s wife Edith strongly urged her husband to create office space elsewhere that steps toward the modern Oval Office occurred.   Roosevelt knocked down ancient glass conservatories and built the West Wing in 1902.   He used a rectangular office in the center of the new building.

Roosevelt’s successor, William H. Taft (1909-1913), built the first Oval Office in 1909. Architect Nathan C. Wyeth recommended its shape and moved it to the south façade, positioning it more centrally in the workflow.  Twenty years later the Oval Office suffered major damage in a fire on Christmas Eve when Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) was president.

The Modern Oval Office

1934 marked the renovation that brought us the Oval Office we recognize today. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) decided to make significant changes to the office, in part due to his use of a wheelchair. He excavated a full basement for offices under the adjacent lawn and built a new cabinet room and Oval Office. He added inset bookcases, doors topped with pediments, a ceiling medallion of the presidential seal, and indirect lighting.

All presidents are allowed to select new draperies, furniture, rug and artwork.  Some have also replaced the flooring itself. There have been four different floors in the Oval Office. The first was cork over softwood, followed by wood – grained linoleum selected by Lyndon Johnson (1963-1969). Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) installed an oak and walnut floor in cross parquet pattern, which George W. Bush replicated exactly in 2005.

The Resolute Desk

The Resolute Desk was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford Hayes (1877-1881). The desk was constructed from oak timbers of the British ship HMS Resolute and weighs 1,300 pounds.  It was delivered to the White House in 1880.

HMS Resolute explored the Arctic in 1855. It’s crew abandoned the ship when it froze in ice.  The Resolute drifted over 1,000 miles and was recovered by an American whaler. The US Congress authorized funds to repair the ship and return it to England. Once it was decommissioned in 1879, Queen Victoria had three desks made from the timbers, one of which was sent to President Hayes in gratitude for saving the ship.

Most presidents since Hayes have used the Resolute Desk. A few used a desk of their own that they preferred. John F. Kennedy’s young children famously used the privacy door of the Resolute Desk for play, having their photo taken while their dad worked. JFK also added a two-inch plinth to raise the height of the desk to make it more comfortable.

Artwork

Presidents are fond of having portraits of George Washington (1789-1797), the Founding Father, in the Oval Office. Jimmy Carter acquired a Charles Willson Peale portrait of Washington in 1977 and had it placed over the mantle.  Also frequently displayed have been portraits of presidents Jefferson, Jackson, and Lincoln, as well as founders Hamilton and Franklin.

Presidents also like to have busts of famous presidents and American leaders displayed in the Oval Office.  Eight presidents have displayed Frederic Remington’s The Bronco Buster.

You may have noticed from photos the ivy on the mantle of the Oval Office. This tradition began with John F. Kennedy who received the ivy plant as a gift from the Irish Ambassador.  All subsequent presidents have used descendants of that original plant to demonstrate continuity.

At 816 square feet, the Oval Office exudes power and functions as an ongoing site for all things presidential.  Most of the recently built presidential museums and libraries have a full-sized replica of the Oval Office that you can visit and even have your picture taken seated at a replica of the Resolute Desk.

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.

What happens to U.S. presidents after they serve in office?  Let’s take a closer look at this rarified atmosphere – ‘the most exclusive club in the world’ – one that has shown to be as varied as the 45 men who have been members.

Faced with the immense stress of being president, most former presidents want peace, tranquility, and little more.  Not counting the 8 Presidents who died in office, most retired to their home states to write their memoirs and stay out of the spotlight.

However, a few of our ex-Presidents tried to jump right back into the oval office. Some have been elected to Congress or served on the Supreme Court.  Some have pursued humanitarian causes, while some suffered personal tragedy and poverty.

Uniquely, William Howard Taft became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1921, serving until his death in 1931. He arguably accomplished more in his 9 years as Chief Justice than his four years as President, (an office his ambitious wife Nellie desired but he never did himself).  It was Taft who persuaded Congress to fund the construction of the recognizable Supreme Court building in Washington, finally moving The Court out of the basement of the Capitol.

Millard Fillmore’s wife died only three weeks after he left office, and his daughter died 15 months later. Despite such personal tragedy, he unsuccessfully ran for President again for the Know Nothing party, remarried a wealthy widow and became a philanthropist.

And then we come to Grover Cleveland, the only President elected to two non-consecutive terms. Defeated as an incumbent in 1888, his wife Frances said to the White House staff “keep everything in good order until we move back here in 4 years.”  And so, it was.  In 1892, Cleveland defeated incumbent Benjamin Harrison, reclaiming the levers of power.

John Quincy Adams ran for Congress after he left office and served 12 years, staunchly advocating for abolition of slavery. Known as Old Man Eloquent, he suffered a massive stroke at his desk on the floor of Congress and died in days.  Andrew Johnson, our impeached 17^th President, was briefly Senator from Tennessee, serving 6 months before his death. And the 10^th President, John Tyler, a life-long contrarian, was elected to the Congress of the Confederacy in 1861.

Prior to 1958, ex-Presidents received no pension, forcing them to fend for themselves to pay the bills.  This situation led to financial problems for several. Sadly, James Monroe died in poverty, partly due to the large, unreimbursed personal costs of serving our country for decades.  Thomas Jefferson was ‘land rich and cash poor’, so he was forced to sell his 6,400-volume book collection to the Library of Congress for $23,950 to generate some cash.

U.S. Grant was nearly bankrupt and diagnosed with cancer. He worried about how his family would survive without financial support.  Mark Twain, in his role as a publishing entrepreneur, approached the ex-president and offered to publish his memoirs for a handsome fee. Grant wrote a highly cogent, successful book, finishing it just days before his death from throat cancer.

In fear of his past coming to light after his death, in 1886 Chester Arthur ordered his staff to burn all his papers just before he died of kidney disease 1.5 years after leaving office. This is one reason we know so little about him, and the justifiable suspicion is that some of his notorious pre-presidency activities went up in flames.

Living here in Georgia, we’ve seen up close the lengthiest post presidency in history:  Jimmy Carter’s 43 years out of office is roughly three times the average. Mr. Carter created the Carter Center to address humanitarian causes, supervise democratic elections around the world, and build houses for Habitat for Humanity.  He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, over two decades after leaving office. And he’s not done yet!

In modern days, most ex-Presidents are busy raising money for their libraries, giving speeches for a fee, and writing their memoirs for multi-million-dollar publishing deals. Who could blame them when the retirement benefit for former Presidents was only recently raised from $96,000 per year to $219,200?

However, it’s not just about the money. Several of the most recent members of the ‘most exclusive club in the world’ such as George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, have joined forces to assist in earthquake and hurricane relief efforts around the world, raising money and awareness as few others could.

Donald Trump has plunged back into national politics, earning the Republican nomination in 2024 in his effort to join Grover Cleveland as the non-consecutive presidents.

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.

Imagine Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Madison having a drink and relishing the concept of checks and balances they’d just enshrined in our founding Constitution.

“Just wait until they need a new Supreme Court Justice. They’ll have to engage all three branches of government to accomplish it. Won’t that be glorious?”

Since 1789 that “glorious” experience has been accomplished 164 times. The President (Executive Branch) makes a nomination to the Senate (Legislative Branch), which provides “advice and consent” for the Supreme Court (Judicial Branch).

The Founding Fathers also imagined this process to be relatively pure and free of political shenanigans. In that, they suffered from naivete. Right off the bat, George Washington, who had the most justices confirmed among all the presidents at 10, had one of his nominees rejected by the Senate.   James Madison, the 4^th President, had one nominee rejected. Over time we’ve seen 12 rejections in all, the most recent being Ronald Reagan’s nominee Robert Bork, in 1987. George W. Bush withdrew two nominations during his two terms. Merrick Garland was nominated by Barack Obama, but no action was taken.

The make-up of the Supreme Court, as realized by the number of justices, also evolved over time and was subject to political pressures.  Our 17^th President, Andrew Johnson, was so reviled that the Congress passed a law in 1866 to reduce the number of justices from 10 to 8, to prevent Johnson from nominating any replacements. After Johnson survived impeachment (by one vote) and left office in 1869, Congress passed another law to cancel the 1866 law and settle the number of justices at 9, where it’s been ever since.

All was quiet on that front until 1937. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was 9 for 9 in getting his nominees to the court confirmed, got a firm slap from the Court over some of his New Deal laws. Roosevelt was furious and sought ways to work around the Court. He floated the idea of expanding the number of justices from 9 to 15, a move that became known as court packing.  His strategy never made it into law.

For decades, these nominations received scant attention, with 52% of them confirmed by voice vote alone. The last voice vote was for one of Lyndon Johnson’s nominees in 1965. The nature of our politics now demands a roll call vote where a Senator must cast their vote in public, thus open to accountability, criticism, and pressure.

The Senate Rules for confirmation have also been adjusted over the years. It used to require a 67% majority for confirmation. Later, it was lowered to 60%, and as of 2017, now requires only a simple majority.  Given the current polarized political environment, if the bar was 67%, it’s likely no justices would ever be confirmed, eventually breaking down our government’s judicial branch entirely.

Setting aside the political nature of these nominations, some interesting bits of trivia have accumulated over the years.

William Howard Taft is the only man who has served both as president and Supreme Court justice.  While Chief Justice Taft lobbied Congress to build the Court its own home across the street from the Capitol.  He resigned his position to retire, as many do, just prior to his death in 1930.

One other man might have accomplished Taft’s feat, had Charles Evans Hughes defeated Woodrow Wilson in 1916. Hughes resigned his seat on the Court to run for president. Later, Herbert Hoover nominated him to rejoin the Court and he did so in 1930.

Also of interest: John Marshall, our 4^th Chief Justice, was nominated by John Adams. He was Thomas Jefferson’s cousin, although they were in fact political rivals.

In times of national crisis, the Chief Justice has occasionally played a significant role in resolving the issue with presumed integrity and without bias.  Earl Warren served as the head of the Warren Commission in the 1964 investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  In 1974, Warren Burger headed the Court during the Watergate crisis, supervising several milestone decisions that ultimately led to the resignation of Richard Nixon.

Lyndon Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall as the first black on the Court in 1967. Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O’Connor as the first female on the Court in 1983. Barack Obama nominated Sonia Sotomajor as the first Hispanic on the court in 2009. Joe Biden nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first black female onto the Court in 2022.

In the 21^st Century, given the high stakes involved, the process in the future likely will not be “glorious”.

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.

When it comes to the presidency, which is better?  To have an educated president, or a smart president? Is there any historical pattern of education level or intellect that correlates with success in the office?

To answer these questions it’s helpful to look at the presidents over our entire 233-year-old republic, remembering that 18^th century education looked very different than modern schooling. It’s also helpful to have access to scholarly works such as Dr. Dean Simonton’s 2006 work to impute an IQ score for all the presidents. Plus, in modern times, hundreds of historians, professors, and professional observers of the presidents are annually asked by C-SPAN to rank the president’s performance from top to bottom.

Looking into the details of these factors places us at the intersection of education, IQ, and ranking of presidential performance. For the record, all these factors exist through Barack Obama but not yet completely for his later successors.

Education

Our presidents have had a wide range of formal education experiences, ranging from ‘no formal education’ (George Washington and Andrew Johnson), to PhD level (Woodrow Wilson).  These big differences in formal education are best understood in the context of the times.  Colonial America had fewer choices for formal education, although John Adams, his son John Quincy, and James Madison all graduated from Harvard or Princeton. Most, but not all modern presidents have had access to significant formal educational opportunities.

In addition to these founding fathers, John F. Kennedy, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush also graduated from Harvard, while Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, and William Howard Taft all graduated from Yale. Some have gone overseas for parts of their education, such as Kennedy attending the London School of Economics and Clinton attending Oxford.

At the other end of the education scale, Harry Truman and Andrew Jackson had little education beyond high school.

Intelligence

Without getting too deeply into the methodology used by Dr. Simonton, it’s fair to say that assigning an IQ score to the founding fathers is hard to do. That said, no one disputes that John Quincy Adams was by far our smartest president, with an IQ over 168.  Not too far behind was Thomas Jefferson at 154, John F. Kennedy at 150, Bill Clinton at 149, and Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama at 145.  Given the American average IQ of 100, the lowest presidential IQ, US Grant at 120, is well above average. Indeed the average IQ for the presidents is 135, near the ‘genius’ mark of 140+.

Performance Rank

Which brings us to the question of how well presidents performed in office. Such rankings by C-SPAN’s esteemed historians can be biased and most certainly subject to change over the years. The 2021 rankings:

1. Abraham Lincoln
2. George Washington
3. Franklin Roosevelt
4. Theodore Roosevelt
5. Dwight Eisenhower
6. Harry Truman
7. Thomas Jefferson
8. John F. Kennedy
9. Ronald Reagan
10. Barack Obama

As noted, neither Washington, Lincoln, nor Truman had much formal education nor high IQs, yet they are at the very top in performance. They would be called outliers in any analysis.

Washington commanded the highest levels of respect from all corners of the country and his leadership in the Revolution and convocations organizing our founding laws and Constitution made him a legend in his own time.

Harry Truman left office in 1953 with very low approval ratings. Yet over time, historians have pushed him higher and higher in the rankings, mostly for his handling of communist aggressions and setting up long term structures within our government such as the CIA, NATO, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and National Security Council to manage security issues for our country.

More predictably, the two Roosevelts, John F. Kennedy, and Barack Obama had it all going for them:  formal education, high intelligence, and they used those skills to perform among the very best.

These ranking exercises and assignment of IQ scores do not easily consider leadership, creativity, character, and personality as critical but subjective factors in a president’s performance. Therefore, they can be debated again and again.

It’s fair to say that the American people are sometimes best served by presidents who are better educated and have higher intelligence levels.  However, we must also leave room for tremendous performers who excel as leaders and have personality traits that enable them to succeed whether they achieved high levels of education or not.

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.

Snowball fights with cotton balls. Nutcracker Suite-themed rooms. Custom Hallmark-designed cards. You won’t be surprised to hear that U. S. Presidents have celebrated Christmas in elaborate ways. Here are some examples.

Official Duties

Christmas officially kicked off in 1870 when President Ulysses S. Grant signed legislation making Christmas a legal holiday.

Calvin Coolidge might hold the title of Presidential Father of Christmas.  He started the tradition of having a national Christmas tree in 1923 with a display of a tree from his home state of Vermont. Calvin and First Lady Grace Coolidge pressed the button to light the tree on the Ellipse across from the White House.

Coolidge also named a giant sequoia in California as ‘the nation’s Christmas tree’.  Appropriately the tree is named after President Ulysses S. Grant.

Coolidge was also the first president to give a Christmas Greeting to all Americans, having a letter of greeting published in most newspapers on Christmas Day, 1927.

Since the Eisenhower administration in the 1950’s, the First Lady has supervised the decoration of the White House.  Mamie Eisenhower had 26 trees put up in the White House. Laura Bush had 49 trees put up, and in 2018 Melania Trump put up 81 trees and topiaries.

Historically, the official White House Christmas tree is set up in the Blue Room. William H. Taft and First Lady Helen began the tradition in 1912.  In 1961, First Lady Jackie Kennedy took the Blue Room tree to a new level by creating a theme for the decorations. Her first one was based on the Nutcracker Suite ballet. Most subsequent Blue Room trees have also been themed.

The concept of Christmas cards is a 19^th century invention that didn’t catch on with the presidents until much later.  In 1953, Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower decided to make the sending of cards a more personal activity.  Dwight Eisenhower was an amateur artist who decided to paint an image of Abraham Lincoln for his 1953 Christmas card, enlisting Joyce C. Hall, CEO of Hallmark, to design and print 1,100 cards.  In 1954, he did one with George Washington as his subject.  As a sure sign of holiday growth, Ronald Reagan sent 125,000 cards in 1988.

Another White House Christmas tradition started in 1969 during the presidency of Richard Nixon.  His First Lady, Patricia, worked with the assistant White House Chef, Hans Raffert, to create the first gingerbread house.  Every subsequent year has seen a White House Christmas gingerbread house, most of them more elaborate than before. The Clinton’s chef spent 150 hours creating the gingerbread house one year in the 1990’s.

Family Time

Once the official duties end, each president goes their own way to enjoy the holidays. Most engage in family get-togethers and religious observances, sometimes wrapped around a vacation.

Some presidents prefer to travel home to gather their families and relax in a familiar setting.  Lyndon B. Johnson went to his Texas ranch. Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan flew home to California.  Jimmy Carter returned to Plains.

Other presidents like to use Camp David (named for Eisenhower’s grandson), a quick 30- minute helicopter ride from the White House.  Presidents George H.W. Bush and son George W. Bush spent 12 Christmases at Camp David.

Those who preferred a vacation-style holiday include Barack Obama, who went to Hawaii, his birth state. Gerald Ford went to Vail, Colorado for skiing vacations.

Franklin D. Roosevelt had a personal touch for his family each Christmas, reading Charles Dickens’s classic A Christmas Carol to his gathered family.

What would the holidays be without the food? Presidents of course have their favorite dishes, including Benjamin Harrison’s love of fig pudding, Abraham Lincoln’s love of gingerbread, and Dwight Eisenhower’s favored ‘million dollar fudge’.

Which president hosted a children’s Christmas party with the snowball fight with cotton balls? None other than Andrew Jackson in 1835.

Presidential Christmases have evolved from quiet personal celebrations to robust national events where every ornament, greeting card and event are examined in detail for appropriateness and political impact.

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.

On a recent trip to Canada, I had the opportunity to visit Campobello, Franklin Roosevelt’s family “cottage” on an island just outside the US.  It was here that FDR contracted polio in 1921 at age 39.  I saw the room where he sat paralyzed for six weeks while multiple doctors tried to determine his condition and ultimately inform him of his prognosis.

Franklin Roosevelt was forever changed, causing him to re-evaluate every aspect of his life.  Part of his plan involved the purchase of a spa at Warm Springs Georgia in an attempt to overcome the paralysis. That he later became Governor of New York, and four term President of the United States is well known, and a testament to his resilience.

Peering into that room and trying to imagine his physical and emotional struggles, started me thinking about other presidents who overcame significant life challenges and setbacks to rise to the peak of power.

Franklin Pierce (1853-1857) lost all three of his children before he took the oath of office. One died in infancy, one from typhus, and the third in a train accident just days before his inauguration. His resilience was tempered by his noted alcoholism, ultimately taking his life due to cirrhosis of the liver just a few years after his term ended.

Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865), perennially voted our best president by historians, had many failures and losses in his life.  He lost jobs, nominations, and multiple elections in his career. He lost children, one in infancy, and one, Willie, in 1862 while in office. He also suffered periodic bouts of severe depression from time to time over much of his life. His ability to rise above these many blows and succeed in holding the Union together may be the ultimate in presidential resilience.

Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877) served in remote army posts after his graduation from West Point. Influenced by his peers plus complete boredom and loneliness, he relied on alcohol to get by.   During his epic military campaigns in the Civil War, Grant was fastidious in avoiding alcohol. Later, as president, he would only drink short toasts.  Historians disagree whether he was truly an alcoholic or not, but his determined and mindful approach after 1861 is admirable.

Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) had severe asthma as a child leaving him weak and sickly.  His father took him on carriage rides in New York City at night to get some cool air into his lungs. Theodore worked hard to develop his body, adopting the strenuous life as his lifetime approach.

Theodore suffered the loss of his wife Alice in childbirth, and also lost his mother the same day. He gave the baby to his sister to raise while he moved west to the Dakotas to become a rancher and try to ease his mind from these losses.

Later, his aggressive approach to life led Roosevelt to boxing for sport even during his White House years. Unfortunately, he took a punch in the eye and lost his vision in that eye as a result.    Roosevelt’s resilient approach to life created a vigorous presidency.

After his presidency, Roosevelt travelled the unexplored ‘River of Doubt’ in Brazil, where he nearly died from an infected leg wound suffered while freeing a canoe stuck on rocks during the trip. Later, the river was named after him, the Rio Roosevelt.

John F. Kennedy (1961-1963) also was a sickly child. He contracted scarlett fever at age 3, had spinal surgery at age 30, and was diagnosed with Addison’s disease in 1947 while a Congressman from Massachusetts.  Today, his childhood maladies suggest he was intolerant of gluten, now known as celiac disease. Despite these illnesses, he showed courage, vigor, and possessed a ‘never give up’ attitude.

Gerald R. Ford Jr. (1974-1977) was born Leslie King in Omaha Nebraska. His mother moved him out of the house just 17 days later, due to his father’s abusive violence. Later, his mother re-married Gerald Ford Sr. and the future president took his name. This tough start in life didn’t hold him back, since he achieved the family stability he needed to thrive.

Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) also had a difficult childhood. His father was an alcoholic and the family moved frequently around the Midwest in search of work.  Reagan sometimes needed to pick his father up off the ground after a late-night binge and drag him inside the house. Some have suggested that Reagan’s personality was directly affected by these experiences, making it difficult for him to maintain close relationships, as he was known for having few if any close friends.  He made up for it with his sunny, optimistic personality that helped him win over voters.

As I have mentioned before, presidents are all too human. Their experiences lend new meaning to the Paulo Coelho phrase “the secret of life is to fall 7 times and get up 8”, meaning to choose never to give up hope and always strive for more.

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.

Can you imagine growing up in the White House in the modern era? Your father is president of the United States, the most powerful person on Earth. Your mother is First Lady. You have Secret Service protection everywhere you go. Cameras record your every public word and action.

We know some of these children by their first names: Barron, Malia, Jenna, Chelsea, Amy. Presidents’ children weren’t always so closely watched, of course.

Our presidents have had 198 children in total, either biological, adopted, illegitimate, guardians, or allegedly with slaves. Some of those children also rose to great power; some were heroes; some died at very early ages. Only two presidents had no children: James Polk and the bachelor James Buchanan.

John Tyler, 10th president from 1841-1845, holds the record, fathering 16 children. Eight were with first wife, Letitia, and seven with second wife, Julia. Tyler was also alleged to have had one child with a slave. One of his grandsons, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, is still living, owing to Tyler’s marriage to a youthful Julia and his reproductive capacity at age 70.

Thomas Jefferson fathered 14 children, six with his only wife Martha, who died in 1782 when Jefferson was 39. He also fathered eight other children, allegedly with his slave Sally Hemings. William Henry Harrison had 11 children, 10 with his wife Anna Symmes Harrison and one allegedly with a slave, born in 1809.

Why did these early presidents have so many kids? Infant and child mortality was a key factor. Back then, death from typhoid, scarlet fever, diphtheria or accidents was common. Twenty-six presidential children died before the age of 5.

For those who survived childhood, a few turned out quite well in terms of making a national impact.

Two became presidents themselves: John Quincy Adams, son of John Adams, became president in 1825. George W. Bush, son of George H.W. Bush, was inaugurated in 2001. A grandson also became president when Benjamin Harrison, grandson of William Henry Harrison, was elected in 1889.

There were cabinet secretaries: Robert Lincoln was Secretary of War under Garfield, and James Garfield Jr. was Secretary of the Interior under Theodore Roosevelt.

Theodore Roosevelt Jr., won the Medal of Honor for his bravery on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.

There have been ambassadors (John Eisenhower to Belgium, Robert Lincoln to Great Britain, and Caroline Kennedy to Japan), a governor (Jeb Bush in Florida), and a big city mayor (Charlie Taft in Cincinnati).

Historic lore also tells us a presidential child was the namesake for a popular candy bar. Grover Cleveland’s daughter Ruth, born in 1891 between his two non-consecutive presidencies, was wildly popular, leading the chocolate maker Curtiss Candy to name their candy bar Baby Ruth. However, that didn’t happen until 1921 long after both Grover and Ruth had passed away, thus leading some to believe Curtiss did so to avoid entanglements with baseball player Babe Ruth. Yet, the presidential connection persists.

A few children of presidents have died while their fathers were in office or were president-elect. Such tragedies became national stories and deeply affected their families. Willie Lincoln died of typhoid fever at age 11 in 1862 at the White House, bringing grief to Abraham and Mary Lincoln as they also managed the Civil War.

At age 11, Benjamin Pierce died tragically in a train wreck riding from Massachusetts to Washington, D.C. with his parents just a few days before Franklin Pierce’s inauguration. Franklin and Jane Pierce unfortunately were eyewitnesses to his gruesome demise. That event, plus losing their two other children earlier to disease, led Jane to become a recluse in the White House and Franklin to drink heavily.

It’s fair to say being a child of the president is a mixed blessing. While some have leaned into their legacy, most have remained relatively anonymous. That said, commencing in 2018 there is an annual meeting of the Society of Presidential Descendants where they can swap stories and share insights on their unique life experiences.

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.

Whether telling a good joke, making a wry comment, or revealing a self-deprecating observation, Presidents can enhance their interactions with many of their constituencies with humor.

Some might say that a President’s ability to find humor in the maelstrom of daily life in one of the most taxing jobs in the world would be a great gift to possess.

Back in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, the correspondence of the presidents was the most likely source of such humor.  In the most recent 125 years of our history, however, the media and related publicity organizations have been the vehicle to push presidential humor out much further than ever.  The advent of radio, television, and the internet has provided an up close and personal look at presidential humor.

Starting in 1924, the annual White House Correspondent’s Dinner became one of the predictable venues for presidents to entertain, particularly after 1983 when the format turned to a comedy roast of the president and their administrations. Nearly every president since Calvin Coolidge attended at least one of these dinners.

Let’s revisit some of the funny and wry quotes from our presidents.

Our first one-term president was John Adams (1797-1801). A known curmudgeon, he once said: “No man who ever held the office of president would congratulate a friend on obtaining it.”

Andrew Jackson (1829-1837) might have mellowed just a bit as he aged. The hero of the Battle of New Orleans in 1814 and many duels, he later observed: “There is no pleasure in having nothing to do. The fun is having lots to do and not doing it.”

Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865), not the most handsome of men, once was accused in a debate of being two-faced. He said in reply: “Honestly, if were two-faced, would I be showing you this one?”

And another one from Mr. Lincoln: “Better to remain silent and thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) was Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the McKinley administration. He took many steps to prepare for possible war, particularly pushing hard for action against Spain in the lead up to the Spanish-American War in 1898.  President McKinley, a Civil War veteran, was reluctant to jump into another war.  Roosevelt said of McKinley: “He has no more backbone than a chocolate éclair.”

Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929) was a man of very few words. His reputation for avoiding extended conversations once led a lady seated next to him at a dinner party to say: “Mr. President, I bet my friend that I could get more than two words out of you tonight.”  Calvin’s reply: “You lose.”

Harry Truman (1945-1953) spent years in Washington as a Senator and Vice President before taking over due to the death of Franklin Roosevelt.  Truman was well apprised of the political potholes to be found around every issue in Washington. He once said: “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.”

A famous golfer, Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961) had a putting green installed at the White House. After turning over the office to John Kennedy, he was asked how his retirement affected his golf game.  He said, “A lot more people beat me now.”

John F. Kennedy (1961-1963) conducted memorable televised press conferences that brought out his humorous side. Once when running for president in 1960, he said: “I just received the following telegram from my generous Daddy:  Dear Jack, don’t buy a single vote more than is necessary. I’ll be damned If I’m going to pay for a landslide!”

Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969) grew up poor in rural Texas. Once elected to Congress, he revealed a consistent streak to desire public praise for his accomplishments. And as president his thin skin occasionally became evident in his comments.  “If one morning I walked on top of the water across to Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: ‘President can’t swim’.”

While not a noted presidential humorist, Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) nonetheless had this wry observation once he departed Washington: “My esteem in this country has gone up substantially. It is very nice now when people wave at me, they use all their fingers.”

Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) was a noted source of humorous stories and quips as president.  One of his best was: “I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of a national emergency, even if I’m in a cabinet meeting.”

After a time in office, Bill Clinton (1993-2001) observed that “being President is like running a cemetery. You’ve got people under you and nobody’s listening.”

Being President is serious business. No one wants a comedian in the White House. However, a bit of levity, wry humor, and self-deprecation can go a long way to humanize the president.

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.

Imagine yourself in this setting:  you are the personal secretary to the president of the United States. It’s 5 pm and you get a call from a guest who must cancel that evening’s dinner. You then realize you must attend the dinner at seven that evening in their place.

Why?

Because your boss, Franklin Roosevelt, suffers from triskaidekaphobia, a fear of the number 13. So, you must attend, making the number at dinner 14.

For Franklin Roosevelt, the fear of the number 13 showed up in other ways too.  He would not travel on the 13^th day of the month.  If it looked like he must travel on that date, he would make sure the train departed at 11:50 pm on the 12^th.

Roosevelt had other superstitions too. He carried a rabbit’s foot lucky charm during the 1932 campaign. He thought it was bad luck to light 3 cigarettes with one match as well and would criticize anyone who did so in his presence.

Since FDR died on April 12, 1945, some say he was just determined to not pass away on the 13^th.

Ronald Reagan

You may be surprised to know that superstitions are not uncommon among the presidents.

The most superstitious president wasn’t FDR, but Ronald Reagan. He carried a lucky coin in his pocket. He tossed salt over his shoulder for good luck.

After the assassination attempt on his life by John Hinckley, Jr. in 1981, Reagan’s wife Nancy hired a San Francisco astrologer named Joan Quigley. Her job was to predict good dates and bad dates for the president’s schedule. She spent the last 7 years of Reagan’s presidency giving advice to Nancy, who would pass it along to the Chief of Staff.

“What does Joan say?” became a common question in the White House and the title of her book as well. Quigley wrote that she “was responsible for timing all press conferences, most speeches, the State of the Union addresses, the takeoffs and landings of Air Force One. I picked the time of Ronald Reagan’s debate with [President Jimmy] Carter and the two debates with Walter Mondale.”

William McKinley

William McKinley was also into the good luck charm superstition. When he was first elected to Congress in 1876 he regularly wore a red carnation in his lapel. He decided to keep wearing the flower for the rest of his career.  On occasion, if he had to say no to someone’s request, he would give them the carnation from his lapel as a token of ongoing friendship despite his decision.

In 1901, at the beginning of his second term, McKinley attended the Pam American Exposition in Buffalo New York.  He was wearing his lucky red carnation when he decided to give it to a young girl named Myrtle in the reception line. Moments later his luck ran out and he was gunned down by his assassin, Leon Czolgosz.

Other Presidential Superstitions

Harry Truman wanted good luck too, so he hung a pair of horseshoes over the entry to the Oval Office.

Barack Obama had a favorite superstition during his campaigns. He like to play basketball and shooting hoops was a form of relaxation.  In 2008, he realized that he won primary elections in Iowa and South Carolina when he shot hoops and lost elections in New Hampshire and Nevada when he didn’t. So, shooting hoops on election day became something he must do to win.

Woodrow Wilson also had a thing about the number thirteen. But unlike Franklin Roosevelt, he thought it was his lucky number.  He was inaugurated in 1913. He was named president of Princeton University in his 13^th year of tenure. There are 13 letters in the name Woodrow Wilson.

Research from the Gallup organization shows that 35% of Americans over age 30 refer to themselves as superstitious, so it’s not a surprise that a portion of our presidents have their own superstitions. After all, they’re human and subject to all the typical behaviors out there.

Hmmm….speaking of superstitions,  wasn’t Bill Clinton’s cat “Socks” mostly black?

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.