Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Albert Gallatin Hoit
Taken: 1840
Caption: William Henry Harrison
Additional Description: This 1840 portrait of William Henry Harrison by Albert Gallatin Hoit hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.

“As a two-term congressman and former territorial governor, William Henry Harrison could lay no claim to proven abilities in political leadership. But his reputation as a frontier Indian fighter and hero of the War of 1812 amply made up for this, and in 1840 the Whigs eagerly made him their presidential standard-bearer. In the so-called, ‘hard cider’ campaign that followed, Harrison's supporters celebrated his military prowess and: combined it with home­spun frontier imagery that was unprecedented for its carnival-like brouhaha. While discussion of real issues was avoided, that brouhaha proved sufficient in itself to win, Harrison the presidency.

Jubilance over this victory however, proved short­lived. Soon after delivering the longest inaugural address ever made, Harrison contracted pneumonia and, on April 4, 1841 became the first president to die in office.
Submitted: December 9, 2018, by Allen C. Browne of Silver Spring, Maryland.
Database Locator Identification Number: p456747
File Size: 3.046 Megabytes

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