Getting to know the American Presidents

In modern times, the President is followed so often by the media that people can often feel that they know every little detail of a president’s life. As a result, it is easy to forget how much the presidential office has changed since George Washington first took the job in 1789. Over the following 220 years, all 44 of our presidents have had to deal with a wide variety of national and international matters that had important consequences for the entire country.

At the National Museum of American History, the exhibit “The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden” captures the legacy of the presidents in a fun and educational manner. Divided into eleven sections, the exhibit re-creates the times these presidents lived in and the issues they dealt with. Every president from our nation’s history is part of the exhibit, regardless of their legacy, whether they were two term presidents like Bill Clinton or one-term presidents like Martin Van Buren.

But whether it was Clinton, Van Buren or any of the other 42 presidents, they were inheriting a powerful job that, at the outset, was quite unique for the times. "There was no precedent for the American presidency when the framers of the Constitution created the office in 1787," said historian Spencer R. Crew, Director of the National Museum of American History in November 2000 when the exhibit first opened. "Yet these revolutionaries—who distrusted centralized authority—entrusted near-monarchical powers to this one office. I hope that visitors will come away from this exhibition with a better understanding of this fundamental contradiction, and how it has given rise to conflicting impulses and realities that continue to shape our country’s political life even today."

One way special feature of the exhibit are the items from the presidents’ time in office and the eras they lived in. Mostly comprised of 900 artifacts from a collection of three million pieces, the exhibit breaks down the presidents’ widely varying times and places in history. Visitors can see the microphone FDR spoke into during his famous “fireside chats,” the lamp that gave George Washington light as he labored over his farewell address and even Herbert Hoover’s fishing reel.

Through the exhibit’s website, teachers who are planning to bring students can start getting them involved through hands-on online activities, such as re-coloring the presidential seal or examining copies of letters written by Abraham Lincoln. In addition, teachers can find lesson plans that will help them prepare their students before arriving.

Find out more about the American Presidency exhibit.