#POTUS History

[deadpresidents]

God damn your god damned old hellfired god damned soul to hell god damn you and goddam your god damned family's god damned hellfired god damned soul to hell and god damnation god damn them and god damn your god damn friends to hell.

Letter from a citizen to President-elect Abraham Lincoln, November 25, 1860.

I can't prove it, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that this citizen didn't vote for Lincoln.

[mysharona1987]

[vintonvalens]

rare and unique photoshoot of john f. kennedy

[bonnieura]

2004 just 4 months away ....time is going by so fast

[starredpoet]

first presidential gamer girl

[oneofthosecrazycatladies]

Reminder that the President of the United States has complete, unilateral control over America’s nuclear weapons.

Back in 1945, Harry Truman had a bunch of trigger-happy generals who weee overexcited about the new technology that was the nuclear bomb and they basically wanted to bomb everyone so Truman decided that the President, alone, should have the power to decide when to use nuclear weapons and on whom. And that hasn’t changed to this day.

Just something to keep in mind when you’re deciding who to vote for.

[jacks-weird-world]

🪖Jack and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend at Arlington Cemetery, Virginia. Oct 17, 2024

[roanokesunset]

Picture of JFK sleeping on the campaign trail on the plane Caroline. JFK can also be seen wearing his wedding ring, which those close to him say he seldom wore.

[dick-nixon]

after a night swim at Miami Beach, 1952

[taraross-1787]

This Day in History: Martha Jefferson

On this day in 1748, Martha Wayles, future wife of Thomas Jefferson, is born.

Martha “Patty” Wayles Skelton Jefferson is a bit of a mystery! We don’t even have a portrait of her, although the attached silhouette is believed to be hers. Jefferson burned all of their correspondence after her death. By all accounts, though, the two were deeply in love.

Patty was a young and wealthy widow when the two married on New Year’s Day in 1772. Their first child was born 8 months and 26 days after their wedding. They named her Martha, and they called her “Patsy.” Mrs. Jefferson would have six total children over the course of her ten year marriage to Jefferson. Only two would live to adulthood.

FULL STORY: http://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-martha-jefferson

[deadpresidents]

"I'm sure that the Presidents who stand out in our history and in our memory are those who led the nation through times of great trial and challenge...Washington, Jackson, Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman. On the other hand, these very same Presidents would not be regarded now as great if their reactions and their responses had been weak, or if they had failed to achieve some of their major goals of if they had run away from the challenges...Greatness is an elusive thing and the judgment of history is sometimes different from that that is made when a President's in office or just after he leaves office. Wilson died a broken and disappointed man because he failed to win approval of the League [of Nations]. Yet history has judged that he was right in that fight and the willful men of the Senate who opposed him were wrong...There are a great many misconceptions about the Presidency...Some people think the President is a man who welcomes visitors to our country, who signs the laws that Congress sends him, who occasionally makes a speech about one of our problems, a kind of father or figurehead. Others see him as a manipulator or as an arm twister who is interested in power and how to use it. Others see him as a solitary figure surrounded by yes men, insulated from all [counselors], isolated from the real world. But very few people have any idea of the long and tedious and grinding work that goes into every Presidential day. I doubt that there was a single day of the Presidency, Sundays included, that I didn't give two or three hours to just solitary reading. There was hardly a night that I was President that I didn't read two or three hours. Even if it were a State Dinner or dancing...when I retired for the evening, I would have two hours of night reading ahead of me...No President in history has been able to do all the things that he or the people hoped he could accomplish at the time of election. But that doesn't mean that the job is impossible and that doesn't mean it's doomed. It's doable."

-- Former President Lyndon B. Johnson, on some of the unseen work of the Presidency.

Here's a great photograph taken by White House photographer Robert Knudson of some of LBJ's "night reading" homework, waiting for the President on his bed in the White House on October 12, 1966:

(I want to thank the incredible archivists at the @lbjlibrary and the National Archives ( @usnatarchives on Tumblr) -- especially, in this case, Chris of the Audiovisual Archives at the LBJ Library -- for tracking down a high-quality version of this specific photo for me. Without having any specifics on when or where the photo was taken, I reached out to the LBJ Library and vaguely described seeing this photo in the past and they quickly found a high-quality file that they sent me. The LBJ Library has done this numerous times for me over the years and I cannot express how grateful I always am for their help. The archivists at the National Archives and the NARA's Presidential Library system are incredible public servants and one of the very best examples of our federal government providing services to and for the American people.)

[mysharona1987]

[vintonvalens]

president john f. kennedy in the oval office (1960s).

[bonnieura]

president john f. kennedy photographed watching what is believed to be a james bond film in the white house screening room (c. 1961)

[starredpoet]

I wanted to do this the entire debate he looked so sleepy 😭😭😭