The LOC.GOV Wise Guide : 'I Do Solemnly Swear...'

To commemorate the recent inaugural festivities, the Library has mounted a special display of more than 40 items, including photographs, manuscripts, campaign posters, letters, broadsides and inaugural speeches.

Thomas W. Strong, engraver. "Union," ca. 1848.

Eighteen presidents are featured in "'I Do Solemnly Swear'": George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson. William Harrison, James Polk, Zachary Taylor, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy.

"'I Do Solemnly Swear'" is a special section in the exhibition in the Library's Thomas Jefferson Building called "American Treasures," which features the most interesting and rare materials in the Library's collections on a rotating basis. If you can't visit in person, you can view the exhibition online.

More than 400 other inaugural items may be found in the American Memory presentation of the same name. Here are materials ranging from George Washington to George Bush. The Library holds the papers of 23 U.S. presidents, making it the nation's premier resource for presidential materials.

A. Thomas W. Strong, engraver. "Union," ca. 1848. This campaign poster for Democratic nominee Zachary Taylor (1784-1850) shows the victorious Mexican War general mounted on a white charger. Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction information: Reproduction No.: LC-USZC4-2713 [cph 3g02713]

B. "The 'Wigwam' Grand March," ca. 1860. During Lincoln's 1860 presidential campaign, brightly colored banners, outrageous political cartoons, sentimental sheet music covers and patriotic portraits were printed to promote the vote. The Library has a rich collection of graphic political ephemera, such as "The 'Wigwam' Grand March," dedicated to the Republican presidential candidate. Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction information: Reproduction No.: LC-USZ62-30647 [cph 3a31316]