Today is National Presidents Day, something we have celebrated since the 1880’s. There are a bunch of books about individual presidents in my library. I also have a few books about multiple presidents that I would like to share. ”Lives of the Presidents of the United States, in words of one Syllable” by Mrs Helen W. Pierson, 1889. Actually, there are words with more than one syllable, but they are hyphenated, to make it easier for kids just starting to read. I also have the book “History of the State of New York” published 1888 that is the same ‘one syllable’ words book.
This book on presidents begins with George Washington, and ends with Benjamin Harrison. There is an interesting rendition of the chopping of the Cherry Tree story. In this book, told by “One who was near kin to him” is the tale of how George Washington’s father took them both to look the fruit trees. All had fruit on the ground around them, except for one not bearing fruit. Upon looking at the tree, it was found to be damaged in such a way that it would not bear fruit for years. George did cut a tree-damaging it, but not cutting it down.
Benjamin Harrison was the current president. The book stated that he married young to Lovinia Scott. That name-Lovinia happens to be my great grandmother’s name. He was also grandson to the ninth president William Henry Harrison. The book also points out that when Benjamin Harrison took office as president, that “now ten times ten years had passed since George Washington had been called to be the first president.
The next book is “Lives of Our Presidents-Complete Biographies of All the Presidents of the United States” by W.A. Peters, 1884. This book ends with Grover Cleveland, that story beginning on page 417. This is a much more detailed and involved book. In the table of contents, someone had pencilled in the next few presidents, Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft. There was no mention of Washington and the cherry tree, in this book, except for this weird sentence about his childhood: “There is no brighter example in human record of the tree inclining to the bend of the twig than the relationship of Washington’s manhood to the nobel traits of his boyish character.”(!?)
The next book is “The American President” by Philip Kunhardt, Jr., Philip Kunhardt III, Peter Kunhardt, 1999. This book is a very interesting book that breaks down the presidents into chapter based themes the presidents may have had strengths in. As such, it compares some newer presidents with older ones on topics. While that could lead some down a rabbit hole of different times and views, but this is actually well written and thought provoking. A lot of research was done using the president’s writings. The book ends with the term of Bill Clinton. Look this book up for a good read.
This next book “History of Our Presidents”, 1964(?) was presented by Instant Maxwell House Coffee. It is an interesting booklet made for advertising. There are brief biographies/comments of each president through Lyndon Baines Johnson, along with four pop-ups: George Washington crossing the Delaware river; Lincoln and the Battle of Gettysburg; Teddy Roosevelt at San Juan Hill; and Kennedy at Cape Canaveral (renamed to Cape Kennedy in 1963.) It is possible that they picked Teddy Roosevelt for one pop-up because rumor has it that he had come up with the slogan “good to the last drop”.
Not a bad bit of advertising then and now. There are always big sales in the country for Presidents Day. Why not instead of a mattress, or a refrigerator, or a kitchen table, everyone should bundle up and go buy a book. It could even be a presidential book…of jokes:
What is the difference between Thanksgiving and Election Day? Thanksgiving gives us a turkey for a day; Election Day gives us one for four years.
Librarytomes 