so if we go to the next image we can see what what zachary taylor looked like this is a painting that's on on lawn to us from helen. marie. taylor is actually stunning portrait james reid lambdem and you get from this a sense of of this man and one of the reasons he was he was so successful is called old rough and ready. his father had been it fought in the revolutionary war and as a payment he was given land in kentucky and the family moved to kentucky when zachary taylor was an infant so he did not spend much time in virginia. he had a distinguished 40 year middle military career. it propelled him to high command in the mexican war and he was the general who won the mexican war. he died only 16 months into his presidency possibly from some from gastroenteritis some sort of stomach bars. so people are historians it speculated that it was the polluted water ground water in washington near the house that that killed him. we can only imagine what might have happened had he lived because he was a and there's a coin that that shows him another object. he he was a slaveholder, but he opposed

henry clay, one of the founders of the whig party and zachary taylor who when lincoln supports clay for presidential nomination in the late 1845, clay and taylor are in many respects the two most contacted individuals in his lifetime so if he's thinking who might there be that would be prominent, they are clay and taylor. he likes taylor's down-to-earth quality, he likes that he doesn't dress up and he becomes eventually a great friend as well but that comes later but taylor's ingenuity is also really is strong defense of the union. in each of the three clay, jackson and taylor all have in common, stewart is the person that talks lincoln into his first law partner and he's one of the first people he gets a uniform for blood lincoln is sometimes substituting for campaign debates where stuart is supposed to be his opponent . a guy named stephen douglas . so lincoln is learning by watching these debates as well but he's also learning both what to do and what not to do. todd stewart was sort of lazy, he's good in front of juries but lincoln although he could be called lazy has a lot to lear

. >> so one of the fragments is a note to zachary taylor, if he had zachary taylor in front of him the time in the '50s, the whigs were trying to get into power and what he had to say about policy and lincoln is saying to taylor. now, i've asked others before what the particular problems are of the soldier becoming a politician versus a politician becoming a commander-in-chief. so how did lincoln in this fragment note speak to taylor? what was he saying to him and how a soldier should look at now this political office? >> well, i almost included this one as a specific chapter because as you suggest, it's fascinating. zachary taylor was for lincoln a logical selection, but not a persuasive one. he was a slave holder and no one knew exactly what he thought. lincoln would have preferred to have had henry clay again or someone like that, but he said if we're going to win this election, you know, i've got to admit this guy is a military hero, so, okay. but three times in this fragment, lincoln says were i president, were i president, were i president, and i'm just imagining that he's not ev

some months later zachary taylor died and willard fillmore became president. from 1836 when martin van buren was elected as the sitting vice president to succeed andrew jackson, until 1988 when george h.w. bush was elected to succeed ronald reagan, no vice president was -- no sitting vice president was ever elected to the presidency other than john breckenridge in 1856, none was nominated to seek the presidency by a major party until richard nixon in 1960. and so at the beginning of the 20th century, there was a common joke that was told about the parents who had two sons, one went off to sea, the other became vice president. neither was ever heard from again. but at beginning of the 20 blg century, the vice presidency took some baby steps forward and toward the executive branch. president warren harding invited his vice president calvin coolidge to meet with the cabinet. the move was controversial at the time but vice president coolidge did meet with harding's cabinet and that became something of a tradition. frank lip roosevelt used john garner as a legislat

when webster was offered a position, on the 1848 ticket with zachary taylor, he refused saying i don't proposed to be buried until i'm dead. it wasn't the wisest move of his career, he always wanted to be president, but some months later zachary taylor died and fillmore became president. but from 1836, one martin van buren was elected as sitting vice president, to succeed andrew jackson, until george h. w. bush was elected to ronald reagan, no vice president are know sitting vice president was ever elected to the presidency. other than john breckenridge in 1856, none was nominated to seek the presidency by a major party until richard nixon was in 1960. so the beginning of the 20th century was a common joke it was told about the parents who had two sons, one went off to see, the other became vice president. neither was ever heard from again. at the beginning of the 20th century, the vice presidency began to take some sort of baby steps forward and towards the executive branch. warren harding invited his vice president, calvin coolidge to come and the move was controversial at the time,

george washington thomas jefferson james madison james monroe william henry harrison, john tyler zachary taylorand woodrow wilson speaker william rasmussen is the senior museum collections curator at the virginia museum of history and culture which hosted this event and provided the video then in an hour karen tumulty talks with c-span about her new biography the triumph of nancy reagan. good afternoon. i'm bill rasmussen senior museum collections curator at the virginia museum of history and culture and welcome to curators at work, which is a regular series where our curator share stories about working with our collections. it's it's part of this series as part of a vast library of online programs that we offer. under our virginia history and home initiatives if you if you're not aware of that you can go to our website and go to virginiahistory.org slash at home and then you can see all sorts of things that are

in 1849 the then president zachary taylor eulogized her as truly our first lady for a half century. now i'd like to shift to a very different period the gilded age. and to lucy hayes, of course i had to have an ohio first lady since i'm speaking to you from ohio university. i had to have one of our examples of a first lady from ohio. luci webb was born very near to where i'm sitting right now here in southeastern, ohio. and on the left we see her wedding photograph with her husband rutherford b hayes and here on the right. we see her official white house portrait. she's someone else that to the extent people think much about lucy hayes. they probably think of her as another celebrity hostess. she was very successful as a washington hostess and she is known as the first lady who began the easter old the easter egg roll annual event at the white house. but again, she was more than a celebrity hostess. lucy webb hayes had some very definite political ideas herself. she was from a very strong abolitionist family and as a younger woman had been very involved in the campaign to abolish sl

to cast a vote so zachary taylor until he was nominated for president on the whig party ticket had never voted in his life. because he thought i'm a career army officer. i simply obey the government whoever's in power and i shouldn't shouldn't have an opinion on these matters. i should simply execute the orders. and when in fact they approached him he said to them well, tell me what your party stands for. what are your issues? he didn't even know the issues between the democratic party and the whig party. and pursue and once they told them they said i guess i'm a whig so they nominated him for president and he got elected. so it's a very strange world, isn't it? what do you think about these matters? you're going to be an army officer, right? yeah, i think saint jones set up there take that out you got you got to do what's what's handed down to you. i think you i think you're absolutely right. i don't think you have to execute the orders. there's not much you can do about it. so it's a complicated world and it's a very difficult one for lots of military people because sometimes these ord

when daniel webster was offered a position on the 1848 ticket with zachary taylor, he refused, saying, i don't propose to be buried until i'm dead. it wasn't the wisest move of his career. he always wanted to be president, but he died and willard fillmore became president. in the succession of president jackson, until 1998 when george w. bush was selected to succeed ronald reagan, no sitting vice president was ever elected to the presidency, and other than john breckenridge in 1856, none was nominated to seek the presidency by a major party until richard nixon was in 1960. there was a common joke that was told about two sons. one went out to sea, one became vice president. neither was ever heard from again. but at the beginning of the 20th century, the vice presidency began to take some sort of baby steps forward, and towards the executive branch. president warren harding invited his vice president, calvin coolidge, to meet with the cabinet. the move was controversial at the time, but vice president coolidge did meet with harding's cabinet, and that became something of a tradition. fr

wife of thomas jefferson who predece him by many years or margaret mccall taylor the wife of zachary taylor who was alive, you know, during the era of photography and yet as a very busy woman, she had 10 children. she was not photographed or at least no photographs of her have survived to this day and this tells us something really, you know, very important about the role of gender in the preservation of images of our leaders and their families women were just not prioritized when it came to portraiture during the 19th century. so for these two very very important women in the history of the presidency martha scalp and jefferson and margaret mccall taylor. we simply don't know what they look like in the exhibition. we represented margaret taylor with her daughter betty taylor bliss with the picture. her next please. some first ladies like harry lane johnston, who was the niece of james buchanan and who served in that capacity as his hostess and first lady really understood the power of portraiture and here you see her in a marble portrait bust which she herself commissioned. it's in the col