John Caldwell Calhoun 1852 Tacoma_Canvas 19th Century — a composite

19th Century — a composite gallery of executive likenesses

rendered here in the careful gravity of a man briefly hailed as a hero and quietly rebuked as a diplomat

The image looks backward with reverence

the Equitable Building's early skyline

A campaign-era portrait of the Ohio general turned chief executive

John Caldwell Calhoun 1852 Tacoma_Canvas 19th Century — a compositeJohn Caldwell Calhoun 1852 a posthumous portrait of South Carolina's gaunt prophet of nullification, his hollow gaze fixed past the viewer toward a Union he spent his life threatening to dissolve. Issued two years after his death, the lithograph carries the unsettled hush of a republic still arguing with his ghost. About the Source Bella Frye sources artifacts from the great American historical archive the Library of Congress, the National Archives,