U.S. Presidents have varying backgrounds and political persuasions. Only one was unanimously elected. They can have little or lasting influence. These stories are about individuals with the power to make a difference at home and abroad.
Sarah Hale wrote to President Lincoln asking that Thanksgiving be made a national holiday.
During World War I, Harry Truman (a future American president) was serving with the American Expeditionary Forces near Verdun, France. He had be...
This image depicts page 2 of Harry Truman's 21 January 1919 letter to Bess. In this letter, he discusses the "flu." At the time, Truman was in ...
This now-declassified cable from the Secretary of War (Henry Stimson) to President Harry Truman (who was attending the Potsdam Conference in Germany) ...
This is a facsimile of the telegram which General Hooker had his assistant send to President Lincoln, after the Union's defeat at Chancellorsville: ...
This is a facsimile of the telegram which General Burnside sent to President Lincoln, advising him of the Fredericksburg battle results. "Our lo...
Prior to his election as President of the United States, Herbert Hoover was the U.S. Food Administrator. This image depicts Hoover's food conser...
This copy of The Federalist: A Collection of Essays belonged to Thomas Jefferson. Click on the image for a better view.
Theodore Roosevelt's first wife, Alice, died on Valentine's Day, 1884. The image depicts his diary entry for that day: The light has go...
Thomas Jefferson was a man of contraditions. He introduced a bill to end slavery, in 1779, yet he owned, and used, slaves at Monticello. I...
A slave owner himself, Thomas Jefferson wrote a scathing indictment against it in his early draft of America’s Declaration of Independence. ...
This image depicts the second page of a letter which Thomas Jefferson sent to Miles King on the 26th of September, 1814. In it he discusses his ...
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