#inaugurations

[deadpresidents]

James A. Garfield delivers his Inaugural Address, March 4, 1881.

[vikkates]

June 19, 2014: The Spanish royal family arrive for the swearing-in of Felipe and Letizia as King and Queen of Spain.

[fordlibrarymuseum]

Gerald Ford attended seven Presidential inaugurations as a Member of Congress. Here are some of the related materials from our collections.

This ticket allowed the newly elected Representative from Michigan to be admitted to the President's Platform to watch President Truman's inauguration ceremony in 1949. (National Archives Identifier 7062710)

President Eisenhower's first inauguration took place in 1953. Gerald Ford kept this ticket for the Inaugural Ball held that year at the National Guard Armory in his scrapbook collection. (National Archives Identifier 7062711)

January 20 fell on a Sunday in 1957, so President Eisenhower took the oath of office privately at the White House. Ford received this invitation for the public inauguration ceremony held the following day at the U.S. Capitol. (National Archives Identifier 7062583)

The program for the 1961 inaugural ceremonies provides a step-by-step outline of the day from the principals' arrival at the U.S. Capitol to the trip to the White House after President Kennedy was sworn into office. (National Archives Identifier 7062584)

This automobile police pass allowed Representative Ford's car to "pass...through all lanes and thoroughfares, except on or across the parade route during parade" on President Johnson's inauguration day in 1965. (National Archives Identifier 7062713)

President Nixon took the oath of office for the first time in 1969. This ticket allowed the bearer to watch the inauguration ceremony from the President's Reviewing Stand. (National Archives Identifier 7062714)

Gerald Ford served on the Joint House-Senate Committee that helped plan President Nixon's second inauguration in 1973. He included this report on the inaugural festivities in his Congressional newsletter from January 29, 1973. (National Archives Identifier 4525481)

[mumblelard]

my hyacinth opened up overnight

[ourpresidents]

“Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country.”

Even if you aren’t a Presidential history whiz, we’d bet you know this phrase by heart. John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address inspired Americans to contribute to the public good. Even elementary school children wrote to him with their reactions! This month’s theme for our #JFK100 series is “Ask What You Can Do” and we’ll be sharing history about JFK and public service.

What do you think were President Kennedy’s most inspiring words?

Video clip from the JFK Library, 1/20/61. You can watch JFK’s full inaugural speech here.

[todaysdocument]

Invitation to the 1957 Presidential Inauguration, 1/21/1957

Series: Scrapbooks, 1929 - 1979. Collection: Gerald R. Ford Scrapbooks, 1929 - 2006. (Holdings of the @fordlibrarymuseum)

Because January 20, 1957 fell on a Sunday, President Dwight Eisenhower took the oath of office for his second term in a private White House ceremony. He repeated the oath and was formally inaugurated again in public on Monday, January 21 at the inaugural ceremonies held on the east portico of the White House. 

More about the 1957 Presidential Inauguration via the Eisenhower Presidential Library

[deadpresidents]

Can the president be sworn in on a porn magazine?

Technically, yes. There's no Constitutional requirement that a President has to be sworn in on anything.

John Quincy Adams took the oath using a book of laws. When Franklin Pierce was inaugurated in 1853, he didn't swear an oath at all -- he is the only President who used the option to "affirm" the oath. When President McKinley was assassinated in 1901 and Theodore Roosevelt took the oath in Buffalo to succeed him, he didn't use a Bible, although he was sworn in using a Bible in 1905 after he was elected to his own term as President. And after President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 and LBJ was sworn in aboard Air Force One before leaving Dallas there wasn't a Bible on the plane, so they used a Catholic missal that they found in JFK's cabin to administer the oath of office.

[deadpresidents]

Hi there!

Just an observation, but I find it interesting that some VPs were sworn into office by their predecessor

I agree -- it is an interesting bit of history, although it does make sense on some level that an incoming holder of an office would be sworn in by their predecessor.

One of the things that really makes it seem like an anachronism when you compare it with today's lack of almost any civility between the opposing political parties is that, in many of the cases where an incoming Vice President was sworn in by his outgoing predecessor, they belonged to opposing parties! And, in a handful of cases, the incoming Vice President replaced the outgoing VP on their own party's ticket in the previous election.

•1861: Hannibal Hamlin (Republican) was sworn in by outgoing Vice President John C. Breckinridge (Democrat). Breckinridge was also the runner-up for the Presidency in the election that had elected Abraham Lincoln and Hamlin. •1865: Andrew Johnson was sworn in by outgoing Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, who Johnson had replaced on a national unity ticket as Lincoln's running mate in the 1864 election. •1873: Henry Wilson was sworn by by outgoing Vice President Schuyler Colfax, who Wilson had replaced as President Grant's running mate in the 1872 election. •1893: Adlai E. Stevenson (Democrat) was sworn in by outgoing Vice President Levi P. Morton (Republican). •1897: Garret A. Hobart (Republican) was sworn in by outgoing Vice President Stevenson (Democrat). •1921: Calvin Coolidge (Republican) was sworn in by outgoing Vice President Thomas Riley Marshall (Democrat). •1933: John Nance Garner (Democrat) was sworn in by outgoing Vice President Charles Curtis (Republican). Not only did they belong to opposing parties, but as running mate to Franklin D. Roosevelt, Garner defeated Vice President Curtis's bid for re-election in 1932 alongside President Hoover. •1941: Henry A. Wallace was sworn in by outgoing Vice President John Nance Garner. Despite serving as FDR's VP for Roosevelt's first two terms, the relationship between FDR and Garner deteriorated over the eight years and Garner not only opposed the idea of FDR seeking a third term but actually tried to run against Roosevelt for the 1940 Democratic nomination. Garner was replaced on the 1940 Democratic ticket by Wallace. •1945: Harry S. Truman was sworn in by outgoing Vice President Henry A. Wallace. When FDR decided to run for a fourth term as President, there was a push within the Democratic Party for him to dump Wallace as his VP because Roosevelt's health was clearly declining and it was thought that whomever ended up as FDR's running mate could very likely succeed him as President. Most Democratic voters supported Wallace, but insiders worked hard to push him out in favor of Truman, who was believed to be a better fit for the Presidency. Truman replaced Wallace on the ticket as FDR's running mate in the 1944 election, and succeeded FDR as President when Roosevelt died 82 days into his fourth term.

In the other three occasions where incoming VPs were sworn in by their outgoing predecessors, they were replacing Presidents and Vice Presidents tickets from their own party who had chosen against seeking re-election (Chester Arthur sworn in by William A. Wheeler in 1881; James S. Sherman sworn in by Charles Warren Fairbanks in 1909; and Charles Curtis sworn in by Charles G. Dawes in 1929).